


And all the colors I am inside

by Maia_saura



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Peggy Carter, BAMF Sharon Carter, Bechdel Test Pass, Captain America: Civil War (Movie) Compliant, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America: The Winter Soldier Compliant, Disabled Character of Color, F/F, Feminist Themes, M/M, Maya Lopez freeform, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2017-01-04
Packaged: 2018-07-12 08:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 21,423
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7094314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maia_saura/pseuds/Maia_saura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a story about Sharon Carter and her best friend (a tiny deaf socialist from New York City who never ran from a fight, named Maya Lopez.)</p>
<p>This is the story about Peggy Carter and her secrets.</p>
<p>This is the story about the topography of choice, and the logistics of freedom.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Growing Up a Girl

**Author's Note:**

> Maya Lopez (Echo)   
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_%28Marvel_Comics%29

One of Sharon’s clearest memories was sitting against the smooth surface of the mirror at ballet class and watching Maya dance Swan Lake — a perfect miniature version of Paloma Herrera gliding across the floor. It only lasted a minute. Mrs. Long had stopped playing the piano, mouth opened wide but making no sound. Maya didn’t stop dancing until she noticed everyone looking. Sharon was seven years old, and she wanted to watch Maya dance forever.

Maya was six years old. 

It took Sharon a whole week to figure out that Maya was deaf. 

Maya’s voice was sometimes flat, and her tones had rose and fell at odd moments, but it reminded Sharon of the way her Dad read a Shel Silverstein book rather than a person who could not hear. 

It took Sharon two more weeks to figure out that she was the only one who knew Maya was deaf. Sharon told no one. It was a secret that Sharon held like a baby bird in her palm — too fragile to let go of and too precious to let anyone else see. 

Maya knew Sharon knew. There was something about the way Maya nodded when Sharon walked over to her during lunch. Sharon sat down next to Maya, who had tucked herself out of the way of the other kids, and they ate their lunch together — Sharon talking only when Maya looked at her. Sharon leaned her Howling Commando lunch bag next to Maya’s Batgirl one. 

~~~

Maya wasn’t like anyone Sharon knew. Maya didn’t talk to any of the teachers, but she talked to all the ground staff at their school.

Sharon learned that the gardner’s name was Ajali. He gave Sharon a white peony flower to take home to plant in her Dad’s garden.

Maya spoke with Ajali in a language that Sharon had never even heard before. 

“It’s Swahili,” Maya said. “I don’t speak it very well because I can’t find any Swahili books at the library. But Ajali is really nice and teaching me some of the grammar.” 

As far as Sharon could tell, Maya spoke fluent Spanish with Camila and Luciana. 

“Everyone thinks I’m the daughter of one of them,” Maya said, “I look more like them I suppose.”

Sharon didn’t know how to respond so she said nothing. 

“I’m actually Cheyenne,” Maya said. “My Mom was Dominican though.” 

“I think you’re actually Einstein. How smart are you Maya?” Sharon whispered. 

Maya shrugged and looked away — so Sharon kept her mouth shut because the conversation was over. Maya wouldn’t see anything else Sharon had to say. 

~~~

Sharon didn’t understand why none of the other kids at school saw how amazing Maya was — but part of her was guiltily glad because this meant that Sharon didn’t have to share.

Maya never invited Sharon over to her house. Maya was an orphan, a ward of a rich and distant guardian in New York City who hired a housekeeper to watch over Maya’s education in the suburb of Washington DC. (When Maya told Sharon about this, Sharon thought it was the most awful and the most interesting thing that Sharon had ever heard.)

Sharon had nothing to compare that experience to so Sharon never asked to go to Maya’s house.

Sharon lived with her doting parents, and she was surrounded by a gaggle of relatives whose familial relationship was so complicated Sharon had taken to call all the adults she meets Aunt or Uncle. “You’re like one of the freaking Kennedys,” Maya said, the first time she came over to Sharon’s house. Sharon had recently seen a photograph of Aunt Peggy with JFK so there was really nothing Sharon could say to counter that. 

Maya always came over to Sharon’s house after ballet class. It was their only class together. Sharon was one year ahead of Maya in school and they didn’t see each other except in dance class and at lunch. Sharon had other friends, but none of them were like Maya — none of them could come close to Maya. A few weeks after meeting Maya, Sharon thought maybe she really only needed one friend. Her mother had furrowed her brows and mentioned to Sharon that she should try to be more social when Sharon’s group of friends became just Maya.

“I don’t think your mother likes me,” Maya said one day after catching Sharon’s Mom frowning at them while watching them assemble a giant Batman jetplane out Legos. Maya had designed it after watching an episode of Batman the Animated Series. 

“She likes you,” Sharon said automatically as she picked up a dark gray 2x6 plate. 

“I don’t mind that she doesn’t like me. You like me best,” Maya said. Maya was always saying things like that, stating what Maya saw in people as if they were simple facts. The sky is blue, the ducks were returning to the park in the Spring, Sharon liked Maya best. 

Sharon felt blood rushing to her face. 

“You’re like Bucky to my Captain America,” Sharon said after a moment.

“I don’t think I could be Bucky. I can’t sit still long enough to be a sniper,” Maya said. Sharon didn’t have a reply for that — except she knew that Maya could be anyone — anything she wanted. 

~~~

Since she was five years old, Sharon wanted to be a Howling Commando or a prima ballerina for the American Ballet Theatre — but when she was nine, Sharon’s Dad borrowed Sanjuro from the library and let Sharon watch it with him.

“We should be samurais,” Sharon said afterward. She had shown the movie to Maya, who watched it with her lips slightly open the whole time (Sharon may have snuck looks to Maya every so often — to see if Maya liked it) 

“I’ve always thought of myself as a ronin,” Maya said.

For the next three weeks, they watched as many samurai and ninja movies as they could find at the library, and Maya started to teach Sharon how to speak Japanese.

They were staging a mock battle with their lightsabers (Maya was pretty sure she could get them real swords, but Sharon knew her parents would ground her for life if that happened) when Aunt Peggy walked in on them. 

“Bow before me, Captain America!” Maya was yelled in Japanese as she knocked the blue lightsaber from Sharon’s hand just as Aunt Peggy entered the room. 

Sharon froze, all the blood in her body rush into her face.

Maya only saw Sharon’s reaction. “What’s wrong?” she asked, still in Japanese.

“I am so so sorry Aunt Peggy,” Sharon said. Because Aunt Peggy actually fought in World War II alongside Captain America—and Sharon was the worst person ever.

Aunt Peggy looked between at Sharon and Maya, and the still lit blue lightsaber on the ground. Then she was laughing so hard tears were streaming out of her eyes. 

“Well, Steve and I only fought on the European front,” Aunt Peggy said when she finally stopped laughing, “And we were certainly never Jedis, but I appreciate your thought, Sharon.”

Maya had turned around, and she looked steadily at Aunt Peggy. It was the first time that Maya was over when Aunt Peggy was visiting. 

“You must be, Maya,” Aunt Peggy said as she turned to Maya. “I’m so pleased to finally meet you.”

“Maya Lopez, ma’am,” Maya held out her right hand. Aunt Peggy shook it seriously. “Thank you for your service to this country.” 

Aunt Peggy was looking steadily at Maya and suddenly Sharon knew… Aunt Peggy was figuring it out. Sharon felt light headed with the realization. She was elated and slightly nauseous that Aunt Peggy could figure it out in just one sentence. Aunt Peggy was hearing the slightly off intonations in Maya’s words—and she probably noticed the way Maya didn’t turn immediately when Aunt Peggy had started laughing at them. 

“Thank you, Maya,” Aunt Peggy said, “I’ve heard so much about you. It would please me if you called me Aunt Peggy too.”

“Thank you, Aunt Peggy. That means a lot to me,” Maya said.

Later, when they escaped back into Sharon’s room—after Maya spent forty minutes asking Aunt Peggy about the integration of the soldiers that fought with Captain America and the range and accuracy of a Lanchester submachine gun—Maya was frowning. 

“She could tell I’m deaf,” Maya said, the moment Sharon had closed the door. 

“Aunt Peggy is the smartest person I know,” Sharon said—except for possibly Maya, “You shouldn’t feel bad—” But there was something about the downward turn of Maya’s mouth that made Sharon stop talking. 

“Can I—” Maya started. Maya shook out her dark bangs from her eyes, and looked up at Sharon through her lashes. 

Sharon waited.

“Can I feel your face when you talk? I think—I think I can do better—” 

Sharon immediately reached out and placed Maya’s right hand on her cheek, “Like this?”

Maya lowered her hand toward Sharon’s jaw— “Maybe like this—Can you keep talking?”

It was weirdly intense to have Maya watch her mouth and to have her hand on Sharon’s jaw at the same time. 

“Want me to read something?” Sharon asked. Maya nodded. 

Sharon went to her book case and grabbed her copy of “The Collective Letters of the Howling Commandos: edited by Gabriel Jones.” They sat down together on Sharon’s bed. Sharon began to read while Maya held her face in her right hand. After Sharon got over the strange intimacy of it, it was actually really nice to be the focus of all of Maya’s attention—each muscle movement of her face and neck being diagrammed and analyzed inside Maya’s head. 

~~~

Sharon got into her first physical fight when she was ten years old. Sharon was kind of surprised it hadn’t happened earlier given the way Maya marched up to people and told them off sometimes.

Maya had been keeping Sharon company while Sharon was looking at Felix Mendelssohn CDs in the records store when Maya’s entire body tensed. 

“That man is beating his wife,” Maya said. Sharon looked at the direction that Maya was looking at, and saw a couple standing next to the new records section. The man had his hand on the back of the neck of the woman as couples sometimes do.

“I’m going to go punch him in the balls,” Maya said before Sharon could respond. 

“Wait!” Sharon yelled but Maya was already on her way toward the couple and she had stopped looking at Sharon. 

True to her words, Maya marched up to the man and punched him squarely in his crotch. Sharon hadn’t been fast enough to reach Maya—

The man howled in pain and swung wildly at Maya. The third swing caught Maya in the jaw and sent her flying into one of the records displays. Maya’s body hitting the display made a sickening crunch and Sharon’s vision narrowed in on the man. 

Sharon jumped on him and punched him as hard as she could in the neck. But she was too light, and he ripped her off and threw her against something. It knocked the wind out of her, and her vision faded out for a couple of seconds.

Sharon blinked. There were a couple of adult guys who was grabbing onto the man and they seemed to have him pinned. 

“Those little bitches hit me!” the man was yelling. 

The woman he had been with was next to Sharon suddenly. “Are you okay?” She whispered as she helped Sharon stand up. 

Sharon could see there were bruises in the shape of hands on her arms. When Sharon looked up to her face, Sharon saw that there were marks on her neck too, almost completely camouflaged by her dark skin. Sharon would have never noticed them except now she was looking for them. 

Sharon looked around quickly for Maya. The cashier was helping Maya to her feet. Maya’s eyes caught Sharon’s and she nodded that she was okay--then blood flooded back into Sharon’s body so quickly that Sharon thought she might faint from the relief-- 

“We’ve called the police,” the cashier was saying to Maya, but Maya was looking at Sharon. 

“Can I call my mom?” Sharon asked. 

“Of course.” 

~~~

Sharon’s Mom took the woman—ironically, her name was Maya too—to the battered women’s shelter that her Mom worked at. Sharon was grounded for an entire month. Which, all things considered, was a lot better than Sharon was expecting. The worst part of it was that she wasn’t allowed to see Maya for two weeks. Sharon had a concussion so she couldn’t even see Maya at school. 

“I’m not saying you should have done nothing, I know we’ve taught you better than that,” Sharon’s mom said. “But you could have called me—fighting is never the first option.”

Sharon didn’t tell her mom that Maya started it, because Sharon was not certain her Mom would understand. And it wasn’t in Sharon not to have Maya’s back. Sharon also wasn’t sure how they would have been able to find the woman again if they hadn’t gotten into a fight and confronted the guy right there. But mostly, she was so so grateful that Maya was okay except for two fractures on her arm.

Maya was so tiny. Sharon never thought about how tiny Maya was until she saw the way Maya had been flung across that store like a rag doll. 

After one week of being grounded—her Mom relented and allowed Maya to come over. (Sharon thinks that maybe her Mom actually understood how miserable Sharon felt…)

When Maya walked through their front door, Sharon held out her arms, and Maya walked straight into them and almost smacked Sharon in the face with her cast. 

~~~

Maya always smelled faintly sugar and the caramel candy that both she and Sharon liked. Maya carried the candies with her sometimes when they went hiking, and the smell was especially strong then. 

When Sharon started the eighth grade, Maya started to smell of sandalwood and mint too. It smelled kind of like Sharon’s Dad’s aftershave. It made Sharon vaguely worried, but Sharon said nothing. Then one day after Maya’s gym class, Maya caught Sharon staring at a stick of a deodorant made for guys in Maya’s bag. 

“It’s the kind my Dad used to wear,” Maya said quietly. “I found it in the store the other day.” 

Sharon pulled Maya into a hug and held on tight.

~~~

Maya went to New York City for a weekend every month. Progress reports, Maya called it. Maya didn’t say anything more about it, and Sharon didn’t ask. Sharon knew the importance of some secrets. 

On the weekends that Maya went to New York City, Sharon usually went to visit Aunt Peggy at her house in DC. 

Aunt Peggy’s personal secretary, Mrs. Jarvis, made the best ginger cookies. 

When Aunt Peggy wasn’t busy saving the world from her office in the house (she was officially retired for more than ten years now), Sharon and Aunt Peggy sat in the house’s giant library and read together in silence. Sharon could read any book she wanted in Aunt Peggy’s library, and Aunt Peggy had a subscription to Jane’s International Defence Review. (Sharon’s Mom made judgy eyes when Sharon read yet another book on the Howling Commandos or the latest developments in military tactics.) 

Sharon sometimes caught Aunt Peggy smiling at her on these lazy Saturday afternoons in the library. Sharon smiled back. But they never broke the silence. 

A few times, when Sharon looked up from her book, she saw Aunt Peggy looking outside of the window, lost in thought. Sharon wished she was an artist so she could draw those moments. Because Aunt Peggy looked so alone—so alone and lost in her own greatness in those moments. Sharon wondered if this what people felt when they watched Winston Churchill or FDR in the war, so alone in the gravity of their responsibility.

~~~

The Christmas before Sharon turned fourteen, when Maya came back from New York City, her eyes looked red and swollen—like she had been crying for a long time. 

Sharon opened her arms, and Maya walked into them. She was so much smaller than Sharon. People often thought Maya was only nine or ten years old.

“He doesn’t care about me,” Maya said, “he just wants me grow up and be married off to some man.”

Sharon pulled Maya’s right hand onto her jaw. “I care about you.” But that wasn’t quite enough, because it was more than that. “I like you best.”  


~~~

Maya told her that following day. Maya had spent the night. Usually, Maya slept in the foldout futon when she spent the night but the night before, they had fallen asleep on Sharon’s bed together. Maya’s tears were still wet on Sharon’s pillow. 

“I watched a bunch of cops kill my Dad when I was five,” Maya said into Sharon’s shoulder. 

Sharon stopped breathing—it felt like all of the blood in her head flooded out of it—her hands tightened around Maya.

“I’m pretty certain he was a criminal,” Maya said. “I don’t know how much choice he gave the men who shot him…”

Sharon tried to inhale, but the air didn’t seem to be going into her lungs. 

“I think he was probably a pretty important criminal,” Maya laughed. It sounded incredibly wrong. “Or at least, important enough to draw in a SWAT team.”

Sharon forced herself to exhale. Maya’s face was still buried near Sharon’s shoulder—Maya’s hands were at her sides.

“I don’t think he was a very good man, but he was a pretty good Dad,” Maya continued. “And I can’t help thinking about it some times. I keep on thinking...if he wasn’t an Indian. If he didn’t look like—like me. Maybe if he looked more like Steve fucking Rogers, maybe I would be visiting him in some prison somewhere and not going to see his stupid partner in New York City every month.”

Sharon pulled Maya into her. As gently as she could, she placed Maya’s hand on her face. 

“I’m sorry,” Sharon said, “I’m so sorry.” 

Maya moved her hand and brushed away tears from Sharon’s cheek that Sharon hadn’t realized was there. 

Sharon caught Maya’s hand and pulled it back to her jaw, “I’ll never let anyone hurt you. They’ll have to go through me.” 

Maya laughed, but Sharon could feel her tears on Sharon’s shoulder. 

~~~

Sharon had only been in Aunt Peggy’s office in her house twice as far as she could remember. She knew that Aunt Peggy didn’t keep anything classified there, but there was something completely forbidden about that room. 

But halfway through her second week of tenth grade, Aunt Peggy asked her to come over to her house alone. 

And when she did, Mrs. Jarvis showed Sharon to Aunt Peggy’s office. 

“What’s wrong?” Sharon asked the moment she walked in and Mrs. Jarvis closed the door behind her. Sharon picked up some of Maya’s habits. 

Aunt Peggy looked very old and very frail sitting in her plush office chair, and suddenly Sharon was afraid, so terribly afraid for her aunt. Aunt Peggy had to be in her seventies. Born in 1921, Sharon reminded herself. She had read it in in an biography of Steve Rogers.

“There has been a plot to kidnap you,” Aunt Peggy said. “It’s been taken care of. But nonetheless—”

“Is it because of who you are?” Sharon asked. Sharon’s Mom was an attorney for a nonprofit women’s group, and her Dad was a structural engineer. 

“S.H.I.E.L.D. is still working out the details, but yes, I believe that is correct,” Aunt Peggy was looking directly at her eyes. Aunt Peggy’s face was impassive. 

Sharon stood up straighter and met her aunt’s eyes, “I don’t care about them. Someday, I will make my own enemies. Until then, I’m happy to be fighting yours.”

“Oh darling,” Aunt Peggy’s eyes crinkled at the edges. She held out her arms, and Sharon walked into them.

Aunt Peggy felt small in her arms. Sharon fought back a hysterical sob and won. 

“You’re old enough to make your own choices—but darling, are you sure?” Aunt Peggy asked her as she pulled back enough to study Sharon’s face. 

“I still haven’t decided if I want to join up or become a prima ballerina,” Sharon said, and she saw the beginning of a smile on Aunt Peggy’s lips, “But I’ll always be your niece.” 

~~~

The day before Sharon turned sixteen, someone from S.H.I.E.L.D. tried to recruit Maya for the first time. 

“Hi, I’m Phil,” the man said. He was a balding man in his early thirties. He had a kind face, but there were bags under his eyes. 

He had approached them while Sharon was practicing at the ballet studio. Maya had been sitting on the floor watching Sharon with a far away look on her face when the man in the suit came into the studio soundlessly. Sharon wouldn’t have known he was there except she had been sneaking looks at Maya every so often and she saw Maya’s entire posture tense. 

“You’re an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Sharon said when she saw the man. She had never met Phil before but she recognized the way he held himself. Sharon walked over to Maya the same time Maya stood up. 

“Yes,” Phil said. “I’m actually here to speak to Maya.”

“The answer is no,” Maya said. She was watching Phil’s face.

“You haven’t heard the question,” Phil said. There was a smile in his eyes. 

“I didn’t put that virus on your stupid mainframe. It’s your own fault your security is terrible. I contained it the best I could,” Maya said.

Phil’s eyes widened. He was silent for a moment.

“You didn’t know about the virus,” Maya blanched. “What’s your question—”

“I’m here to offer you a job,” Phil said.

“No,” Maya said. There was something in the Maya’s voice that made Sharon cold. A finality in it that cut through the air like a physical blade. 

Phil looked at Sharon quickly, then back at Maya. Sharon hadn’t realized until he looked at her, but Sharon had shifted closer to Maya. She was almost physically blocking Maya from Phil. 

“It’s an open offer,” Phil said. “I hope you change your mind some day--”

“What got your attention?” Maya cut Phil off. Maya almost never cut people off. 

“The two million dollars that moved from the national committee of the NRA to the Southern Poverty Law Center,” Phil said. 

“It won’t happen again,” Maya said. And Sharon knew Maya meant she was not going to get caught again, not that she was not going to do something similar again. 

Phil looked at Maya and then back at Sharon—then he smiled again, with his whole face. 

“Have a good day, ladies,” Phil said as he left the studio as quietly as he entered. 

Sharon turned back to Maya. 

Maya looked at Sharon’s mouth, waiting for Sharon to ask her about Maya’s hacking. But Sharon didn’t. Sharon wrapped her arm around Maya’s shoulders.

“I’m with you no matter what,” Sharon said simply as she met Maya’s eyes. Maya nodded. 

~~~

Almost a month after she got the notice, Sharon still wasn’t sure if she was nervous or excited about her an audition with the American Ballet Threatre Studio Company. 

“When you start you’d only be seventeen, you’d be one of their younger dancers,” her Dad had said. He seemed to think that Sharon was guaranteed a spot, but Sharon heard the hesitation in his voice. Sharon’s Mom, on the other hand, was beside herself with happiness. Sharon knew it wasn’t because her Mom really wanted her to be a ballet dancer—it was because of what it meant Sharon wouldn’t be doing. 

“They’d be stupid not to take you,” Maya said. Maya would be accepting an internship with Stark Industries if Sharon decided to move to New York City. Maya had assured Sharon that she would not be going into the “family business” if she moved back to New York City. Sharon still wasn’t sure what the “family business” actually was and she still didn’t ask. 

Maya also wrote the music accompaniment to Sharon’s choreographed dance. 

Maya had stopped going to dance classes after she turned eight. Maya never said, but Sharon knew it was because Maya was too good. Maya could replicate any ballet performance in the world after watching it just once; it called too much attention to her. 

“I’m too small and too brown to be a ballerina anyway,” Maya had said instead.

“I wish you didn’t have to hide how extraordinary you are,” Sharon said, after Maya had turned her head to look at the sheet music she had written out. 

Sharon had originally picked out music from Minkus’ Don Quixote to dance to but Maya saw the beginning stages of her choreography and rewrote the music completely. “It’s just math, really,” Maya had said. “Really elegant and pretty math to go with your movements.” 

“Want to hear a variation I came up with last night and see how you like it?” Maya asked when Sharon sat down on the piano bench with her. 

“They are going to wonder where my music came from—” Sharon started. 

“I’ll post it on the internet a week before you go in for your audition,” Maya said. “It’ll be like open source code.”

Then Maya turned away from her and began to play. Sharon watched Maya’s long elegant fingers touching the keys and wondered what it was like to never hear the feedback of the music that was pouring out of the old piano. 

Sharon was becoming obsessed with watching Maya’s long fingers: they should look out of place on Maya’s petite frame, but they were startlingly beautiful. Maya could reach two keys past an octave, and her hands moved acrossed the piano like the first time Sharon watched Maya dance. 

“You’re amazing,” Sharon said, as the music began to crescendo. “I wish I could put you in my pocket and keep you with me always—” 

“You know I can tell you’re talking even when I can’t tell what you are saying because I’m not looking at your mouth, right?” Maya said as she stopped playing. Her eyes were smiling as she turned to Sharon. “You can just tell me, you know. Whatever you want to say…”

Sharon watched Maya’s dark eyes drop to her mouth and suddenly she wished Maya didn’t have to watch her lips to see what she was saying. 

“You’re amazing,” Sharon said slowly. “You’re the most amazing person I know—”

“More amazing than Captain America?” Maya’s smile reached her mouth. “More amazing than the Howling Commandos in their six month campaign against nine Hydra bases between ‘43 and ‘44?”

“You’re also kind of jerk,” Sharon laughed, but she was watching Maya’s mouth when Sharon’s emergency cellular phone rung- 

Sharon and Maya jerked apart from the bench. Sharon ran to her gym bag and picked up the call. 

“It’s Aunt Peggy...” Her mom was crying. 

~~~

Sharon had firmly turned down Maya’s offer to come with her to the hospital even though she wanted nothing more than to have Maya hold her hands, but Sharon understood Aunt Peggy’s organization well enough to know that they wouldn’t let Maya anywhere near Aunt Peggy when there had been an assassination attempt.

When the car service dropped Sharon off at the hospital in DC, a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent greeted Sharon and showed her to a waiting room where her parents were already sitting.

“They won’t let us see her,” her Dad said as he stood up and grabbed Sharon in a bear hug. 

Sharon’s Mom was on the telephone. “Yes, I’ve spoken with your fucking attorney. We’re her only family in a 100 mile radius and we demand— Well fuck you!”

Sharon’s Mom hang up the phone and looked at Sharon. Her mom’s eyes were red. 

“I’m sorry you had to hear that,” Sharon’s Mom said. Her voice sounded hoarse. Her Mom almost never swore.

“Aunt Peggy’s kids are on their way, but I don’t think they are letting any of us see her until the analgesic has completely left her system,” Sharon’s Dad said. 

“How is she? What happened?” Sharon asked. Sharon was surprised how calm she sounded. But she was unsurprised that S.H.I.E.L.D. refused to let anyone near Aunt Peggy when she may be mentally compromised. Aunt Peggy knew too many secrets. 

For a moment, Sharon missed Mrs. Jarvis—who had passed away almost a year ago—so much it made her heart physically ache. Mrs. Jarvis would have found a way to let them into Aunt Peggy’s room. 

“She’s in the ICU but she’s stable. They said someone sent three assassins,” Sharon’s Mom said, “I think they were fucking ninjas—” Mom clasp her hand over own mouth and let out a sob. 

“They told us the assassins are all dead,” Sharon’s Dad said as he captured her Mom into a hug. “I think Aunt Peggy shot them all before her security detail was even in the room. One of the assassins shot Aunt Peggy in the shoulder with her own gun during the struggle.”

“Who’s the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in charge here?” Sharon asked.

Her Mom and Dad both looked at her with widened eyes. 

“There’s a guy in a leather trench coat with an eye patch,” her Mom said after a moment. “The way he’s been acting, he’s either in charge, or he’s a pirate. But Sharon—now isn’t the best time—” There must be something in Sharon’s face because her mom stopped talking with an almost audible click and suddenly tears were pouring out freely from her eyes. “Oh honey—” Sharon’s Mom hugged her fiercely.

Sharon let her Mom hug her and waited until her Mom’s sobs stopped. 

“I will be back in a few minutes,” Sharon said. Her eyes were dry. 

Sharon found the guy that her Mom had described not far outside of Aunt Peggy’s room in the ICU. She introduced herself. That was the first time she met Nick Fury. 

~~~

Sharon had her first fight with Maya when Sharon told Maya her decision to enlist. They were in Sharon’s room when Sharon told her. 

“They’re a fucking spy organization that spies on everyone,” Maya said. She had gotten up from where she was sitting on Sharon’s bed, and was rapidly pacing the room. Sharon waited until Maya collected herself enough to look at Sharon again before she spoke. 

“They also protect people,” Sharon said. “They’ve protected me—” 

“I’ve protected you!” Maya yelled. “They would have gotten you kidnapped two years ago when that stupid—” Maya’s mouth shut suddenly.

“You knew,” Sharon said, the realization hitting her at once. “You were the one that told them about the kidnapping attempt. It was because of me! That’s why you hacked S.H.I.E.L.D.!” 

“Because they’re bad spies! They’re terrible at their job,” Maya said, throwing her hands in the air. 

“Aunt Peggy founded S.H.I.E.L.D. and she—” 

“This isn’t her organization anymore,” Maya cut her off. 

“Yes, it is,” Sharon said softly, thinking about the three S.H.I.E.L.D. lawyers that her mom was trying to strangle, and the half a dozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents guarding Aunt Peggy’s room.

Maya must have seen it on her face, because she stopped moving at once, and her face crumpled. It made Sharon hurt to see it. 

Sharon walked slowly to Maya and placed both of her hands on Maya’s heart shaped face. 

“This is my decision,” Sharon said. Sharon felt the fight slowly drain out of Maya. Maya tilted their foreheads together and put her hands on Sharon’s face too. 

“I love you,” Maya said. “I don’t want them to have you.”

“I know,” Sharon said. “But how else am I supposed to be the change I wish to see in the world?”

“Don’t you dare quote Ghandi at me,” Maya said. Sharon felt smile and the tears on Maya’s face. 

~~~

When Sharon was officially sworn in as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, she was nineteen years old. At her graduation Aunt Peggy presented Sharon with her husband’s old S.H.I.E.L.D. badge—lucky number 13. As the founder of S.H.I.E.L.D., Aunt Peggy had never gotten an official badge or been assigned a badge number. 

Sharon had never met Aunt Peggy's’ husband: he had passed away more than a decade before Sharon was born. But Sharon knew what this meant to Aunt Peggy. None of Aunt Peggy’s children or grandchildren had enlisted. 

“Thank you,’ Sharon said as she hugged Aunt Peggy. If both of them were crying, neither of them acknowledged it. 

“I also got you a custom made thigh holster,” Aunt Peggy told her. “Despite all the progress over the years, the standard issued one is still made for a man.” Sharon laughed through her tears and hugged her aunt tighter. 

Maya had also gotten a present for Sharon. It was a framed photograph of the Howling Commandos with Aunt Peggy in her twenties, but Sharon and Maya had been added into the shot. Sharon and Maya were both marching behind Captain America. It was done so seamlessly that Sharon almost believed they were there.

“You know how I feel about S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Maya said, “But I love you and I respect your choice. And even though I’m not with S.H.I.E.L.D., I’m with you.”

Maya hugged her, and reached up until her right hand was pressed lightly on Sharon’s jaw. 

“Thank you,” Sharon said. 

~~~

Sharon joined S.H.I.E.L.D. Special Services after five years on the job. Her first assignment had been an overt security detail for a diplomat from Australia who had been targeted by Australia’s own Secret Service. Her second assignment was the daughter and granddaughter of the Secretary of Defense. 

The best and the worst part of the assignment was Alexandria, named for her grandfather. At four months, Alexandria was very willful in what she wanted. And what she wanted was not to fall asleep. 

Sharon had texted Maya for help out of desperation, and received a YouTube video on baby wearing in return. 

Except the videos was full of lies. Sharon had strapped Alexandria to her chest in the baby carrier and had spent the last thirty minutes bouncing her. In response, Alexandria wiggled with various degree of annoyance and every so often she gave Sharon a look of quiet disapproval. 

“Oh gosh, Sharon,” Roxanna laughed as she walked into the nursery. “You’re trying out that baby carrier? Thank you! I can take over.”

“No, it’s okay. That’s what I’m here for,” Sharon said. 

“Sharon, seriously, I don’t care what my Dad or Director Fury told you, you don’t have to live your cover,” Roxanna helped to unstrap the baby carrier from Sharon as she pulled Alexandria into her arms. “Although it does save me the trouble of having to find a nanny that meets Dad’s safety requirements.”

“Want me to get your dinner started?” Sharon asked. “Before Director Fury knew you were pregnant, I had to take five weeks at a culinary school for my original cover.” Sharon didn’t mention that Maya routinely gagged eating Sharon’s failures the first four weeks of instruction. 

“Yes, that would be wonderful,” Roxanna said gratefully as they both walked into the living room. Roxanna was holding Alexandria to her chest. “How many courses did you have to take for the new role?”

“None actually,” Sharon opened the drawer and got out the cutting board. “I actually trained as a RN. And I have lots of younger cousins.” 

“Well, thank goodness for that. I’d hate to see what kind of parenting or babysitting classes S.H.I.E.L.D. would have come up with,” Roxanna said. 

“Lesson one, do not hide a weapon inside the diaper not matter how operationally necessary you think it might be,” Sharon said and they both laughed. 

After a moment, Sharon asked, “How was your conference call with the Argentine Minister Counselor?” Sharon took out some garlic and began peeling them methodically with a knife—the way Maya taught her after she had finally given up on Sharon’s classes teaching her how to do it. 

“He more impressed by my lineage than my Spanish and my diplomatic skills--” Roxanna was rocking Alexandra gently when Sharon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. phone rang. 

Roxanna looked startled. It was the first time Sharon’s S.H.I.E.L.D. phone had rang.

“Agent 13,” Sharon picked up.

“There is currently an extraterrestrial attack in New York City. You’re to remain in your current post until further instructions.”

“Yes, sir,” Sharon said mechanically. “Is it a covert or an open attack?”

“You can turn on the TV and get about as much intelligence as we have—there’ll probably be no further instructions from us until it’s over,” Agent Yardley said. 

“Understood.” Sharon hang up the phone and looked up at Roxanna. “There is an alien attack in New York City. We should turn on the TV.”

Roxanna visibly paled. Her hands tightened around Alexandria. 

Sharon turned on the TV in the living room. On CNN they were showing shaky cell phone camera recordings of robot looking things shooting energy weapons at the civilian population of New York City. Sharon checked her regular phone. There was no message from Maya. 

Roxanna sunk down heavily on the sofa, clinging on to Alexandra. “My Dad is at the United Nations. It looks like the attack isn’t that far from there.”

“Agent Weinstein will get him out,” Sharon said. She put her hand on Roxanna’s shoulders and gently squeezed. “Agent Weinstein grew up on the Upper West Side. He knows Manhattan like no one else.”

Roxanna looked up at Sharon. “Your friend—isn’t your friend doing work at the new Stark Tower?”

Sharon fought the urge to punch the nearest wall. “She’ll be alright. She’s very resourceful.” 

Then in silence, Roxanna and Sharon held their vigil watching the news. 

Sharon wasn’t sure how much time had past when Roxanna spoke again. Alexandra had drifted off to sleep. 

“You know, people always tell me what a great man my father is,” Roxanna spoke softly. “That may be true, but he was never a very good father. I mean, you’ve been with me almost 11 months, and he’s never even stopped by the house. He’s seen Alexandria a total of three times, and each time it was at one of his political events— I always felt like I was just a convenient prop for him—but still—still I think he’s been trying...“

Sharon reached out and touched Roxanna’s hand. “He’ll be okay. It looks like Iron Man and his friends have set up a perimeter to hold back the aliens.”

In the amateur videos of the attack, Sharon thought she saw the outline of someone dressed like Captain America coordinating the superheros’ efforts to fend off the aliens—Sharon hadn’t been officially briefed on the return of Captain America, but she had heard the rumors...

Please, please, Sharon prayed at her childhood hero as she watched footage of the collapse of Stark’s name from the top of the tower, please save Maya. 

~~~

Agent Weinstein called Sharon about twelve minutes before the Battle of New York was declared over by the news. 

“Tell Roxanna he’s okay,” Agent Weinstein said. “He’s on his way back to DC right now. He’ll be at Roxanna’s house in about 2 hours.”

“I will, thank you,” Sharon said. Then she asked, “I know we’re overwhelmed right now, but do you think anyone could come and relieve me? I’d like to join the search and rescue on the ground as soon as possible.” There still hasn’t been any message from Maya. 

“Agent Cheung is already on his way,” Agent Weinstein said and ended the call. 

“He’s okay. The Secretary will be here in about 2 hours,” Sharon told Roxanna. “Agent Weinstein got him out.”

Roxanna sagged in relief. Alexandria was still asleep in her arms. 

“Do you think you’ll be alright if I leave you with Agent Cheung—”

“Go. I know you have to wait until Robert gets here, but go the moment he gets here. Go find your friend,” Roxanna said.

Sharon nodded gratefully. 

~~~

It was approximately two hours after the attack when Sharon finally received a text message from Maya from an unfamiliar number. 

I’m okay. I broke my arm and maybe three ribs. I’m at Medical at Stark Tower. Do what you need to do first--then come and find me. I’m good. Also, Captain America is a dick. 

Sharon laughed so hard at the message she had tears rolling down her cheeks.

~~~

“Captain America is a dick,” Maya was enthusiastically digging into the curry that Sharon had picked up for her on the way to Stark Tower. It was only sixteen hours after the Battle of New York, but it seemed like Maya’s favorite Thai restaurant was already going back to business as usual. There were bruises blossoming on the left side of Maya’s face, and her arm was in a sling. But Sharon had read Maya’s chart three times and assured herself that Maya was okay. 

“After he threw his stupid shield over my head he told me to duck. AFTER,” Maya said. Maya told her that Captain America had taken out over a dozen aliens that were converging on the Stark R&D employees that Maya had taken to evacuate by herself. Sharon was certain that there were parts of the story that Maya didn’t tell her—like how Maya broke so many bones— but Sharon didn’t press.

“He might have yelled at you to duck and you just didn’t see,” Sharon offered, “—or maybe he could tell how good you are and he knew you could feel the thing coming.” Sharon was resisting her own urge to crawl into Stark Industries’ medical cot with Maya. They could both easily fit on it together. 

“He shouldn’t assume things about people,” Maya said. 

Maya ate several pieces of tofu from her plate more slowly. Then she said, “S.H.I.E.L.D. sent Clint Barton to try to recruit me again while I’ve been stuck at medical,” Maya said. “I guess they did some soul searching, and because of my work with Stark Industries, I’m back on their radar.” 

“Did you try to out snark Hawkeye?” Sharon asked. She only knew him by reputation, but it was quite a reputation. “Did you give him your dissertation on the all the failings of big government?” 

“You think you’re so funny,” Maya frowned at her. Sharon smiled. 

“I actually like Barton/ I think they sent him because they were trying to distract him from—you know.” Maya went back to her food, “But Barton figured it out. I think he used to be deaf too. In any case, he really doesn’t seem the type to work for Big Brother.” 

“Because Stark Industries is so much better,” Sharon kept smiling. She liked winding Maya up. It was the same familiar conversation they have had over and over again the past seven years. She was giving in to her urge to be closer though, and she sat down directly on Maya’s cot. 

“Tony Stark is just as paranoid as S.H.I.E.L.D., but Potts is the CEO. And they leave the R&D people alone for the most part. We get to play and break things,” Maya said.

Sharon eyed Maya’s overlarge T-shirt, which said “Let’s break some physics” in the iconic Stark typeface. 

“As long as you’re happy,” Sharon said. Maya looked up from Sharon’s mouth and met her eyes. Sharon could see Maya’s eyes soften. Maya put her food down on the table by her cot. Slowly, Maya pulled their heads together as she put her left hand on Sharon’s cheek. 

“I am happy here. But whatever toy I can come with won’t matter at all if a nuclear bomb goes off in the middle of Manhattan,” Maya said. They were close enough that she would only be able to feel Sharon’s reply. “I accepted Barton’s offer.”

“So you can infiltrate the Big Brother yourself, and dismantle it from the inside?” Sharon asked. 

Maya laughed, a puff of curry smelling breath. 

“A nuclear bomb on the island of Manhattan, Sharon,” Maya said. “Aunt Peggy would be trying to dismantle S.H.I.E.L.D. herself if she knew.” 

Sharon lightly headbutted Maya, but she was just so so grateful for this moment. 

They held on to each other. 

~~~

Two months after Battle of New York, Roxanna was offered the position of Deputy Ambassador to Spain. Two weeks after that, Aunt Peggy had a stroke and was taken to a S.H.I.E.L.D. recovery facility. For the first two weeks of Aunt Peggy’s recovery, Sharon was the only family member allowed to visit her. 

Sharon requested and received a transfer to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters-- to provide as needed protection for dignitaries that happened to be in DC. 

“I’m glad you’re here,” Sharon said, the first day Maya gets officially sworn in at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ and gets assigned the largest office on the thirty-second floor. 

“Because I have my own office?” Maya asked as she unpacked one box of her toys in her new office. “I guess they really do want me to work for them-- this is a pretty swanky office-- “

Sharon shook her head and smiled.

“What’s with the glasses?” Sharon asked when Maya looked back up at her again. The glasses were large and black framed. They made Maya look even younger than usual. 

“Something I came up with at Stark Industries,” Maya said. She took them off and handed them to Sharon. “Try them on.”

Sharon shook her hair out from behind her ears and put on the glasses. 

“Bottom left corner--” Maya said, and Sharon could see bottom left corner displayed in tiny Helvetica font on the glasses as soon as Maya spoke the words. 

“Don’t think Barton told anyone about me,” Maya said. “Figure this was easier than trying to explain-- what I am. This should pick up most of the speech that’s around me in real time. It only recognizes speech though, it won’t do shit if someone tosses a shield at my head.”

“You can feel the air displacement,” Sharon said. She gave the glasses back to Maya.

“I have it linked up to my assigned headset too,” Maya put her disguise back on. “I should be able to help out on actual field assignments too.” 

“What are they expecting you to do?” Sharon asked. 

“Network security,” Maya smiled. “Also, whatever side jobs that interests me. Barton actually lent me a new toy,” Maya said. “He wants me to do some tests on the Captain America shield. Howard Stark did some tests way back when, but not on modern building material or construction. And since that thing doesn’t actually obey any known laws of physics, Barton wants me to run some numbers for him so we can come up with some realistic projections of what the shield will do when it bounces against or into various materials, then come up with countermeasures.” 

“Countermeasures?” Sharon asked--sharper than she meant to.

“Relax,” Maya laughed. “He’s not Batman. He’s not carrying kryptonite to take down his teammates—though I bet Ironman has backup plans—maybe Captain America does too—”

“Maya!”

“What?” Maya blinks innocently at her, but then holds up her hand in surrender, “Barton actually wants to help the guy out: to prevent things like Rogers throwing the shield at a building, and destroying the building’s structural integrity. Can you imagine the paperwork if Captain America accidentally destroyed a city block?” Maya said. “It’s a milk run. Besides, Rogers agreed to it.”

Sharon watched Maya unpack the rest of the things in her box, wondering if they would run into Captain America in S.H.I.E.L.D.’s HQ— and if Maya would sass Captain America. The thought made her smile so wide her face ached. 

~~~

In almost ten years as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, Sharon had been in Nick Fury’s office four times. It reminded her strongly of getting called into the principal’s office (for fighting—Sharon always had Maya’s back).

As Sharon waited for Fury to speak, Sharon thought for a hysterical moment maybe she was called in to the Director’s office because Maya had been fighting. 

“Agent 13,” Fury said. “I’d like to offer you a new assignment. Fully covert.”

Sharon waited. 

“Captain Rogers has relocated himself to Dupont Circle,” Fury said. “He has turned down any S.H.I.E.L.D. protection.”

Sharon immediately understood the assignment. 

“With all due respect, sir, isn’t that his choice?” Sharon asked. She wondered what Aunt Peggy would think of this. She wondered what Maya would think of all of this.

“Captain Rogers has shown a distinct lack of self preservation,” Director Fury said. “The man jumped out of an airplane last week without a parachute—and he had a choice then too. There were plenty of parachutes.” 

Director Fury narrowed his eyes slightly. “There has been three credible threats against him in the past two months. I have confirmed reports of the Chinese and the Russians throwing honeypots at him left and right. And instead of reporting these very attractive young women— and in one case, a young man—Captain Rogers has been very politely telling them no. I’m not waiting for them to start throwing grenades at him before we set up countermeasures.” 

“Yes, sir,” Sharon said. She let her face fall back to her neutral expression. “When does the assignment start?”

“Tomorrow. Captain Rogers moved in about two weeks ago. Logistics Unit 3 has already been through on his apartment. Analyst Lopez is the lead on the op, and she will be the primary on the surveillance support. She has your background package in her office.”

“Analyst Lopez?” Sharon fought to keep her face neutral but judging from Fury’s raised eyebrow, she was probably not very successful. Not against Nick Fury anyway. 

“Is that going to be a problem?” Fury asked. 

“No, sir.” Sharon said. 

“Good,” Fury said. His tone clearly dismissing her from his office. 

“Sir,” Sharon said as she left the Director’s office to marched directly to Maya’s office. 

“We’re conducting surveillance on Captain America for his own protection now?” Sharon asked before Maya turned around to greet her. Maya had her glasses on, so Sharon knew Maya could see her words.

“Not my call,” Maya said. “This is why I’m here, remember? To make sure Big Brother doesn’t go too ape shit?” Maya was typing furiously at one of her three computers. “Your file is on my desk. I made you a nurse, since you actually went through the training. Also gives you an excuse to visit Aunt Peggy’s new facility without too much fuss. If anyone checks, you’re on the books do rotations there on Fridays. So you know, visit on Fridays.” 

“Maya, look at me,” Sharon said softly. 

Maya looked away from the computer and looked up at Sharon’s mouth. Maya’s bangs were hanging loosely over her eyes. She was chewing absentmindedly on her lower lip. 

“I’m trying, Sharon,” Maya said after a moment. “That’s why I made myself the lead on this so I can try to respect the guy’s privacy at least a little bit. No actual recording, all live monitoring, and you—you and I are the only checks on how invasive this thing gets.”

“Aunt Peggy would be furious if she knew,” Sharon said. “He deserves better than this—”

“Yeah, well, you know much I love stomping on people’s civil liberties—even when they throw massively destructive shields at my head,” Maya said. “But we both know how much S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn’t care about the Fourth Amendment or the Constitution or any thing.”

“You dated one defense attorney,” Sharon laughed.

“You know how I am,” Maya said. She had taken off her glasses and was looking steadily at Sharon.

“Yeah, I do,” Sharon said. Slowly she walked over Maya and brushed Maya’s bangs away from her eyes. For a long time, they just looked at each other in silence. 

Then Sharon moved away, and sat down on the visitor’s chair at Maya’s desk. She reached over to the desk and opened up her background file. Out of the corner of her eye, Sharon saw Maya putting her glasses back on and going back to one of her computers.

“Is there audio surveillance on his apartment right now?” Sharon asked as she scanned her file.

“Yeah, audio inside his apartment. Audio and video at the entrance of his apartment, and on the rooftop with the sightline into his window. Jones and Palmer and I split the shifts so it’s all live and we keep no recordings,” Maya said. She added after a moment, “Rogers doesn’t know how lucky he is that I’m on all the night shift.”

“Oh?” Sharon looked up. There was something smug in Maya’s voice. 

“I won’t hear him when he’s most likely to be jerking off,” Maya said. She wasn’t looking at Sharon, but there was a big smile on her face. 

“Maya!” 

Maya turned to her, her grin widened. “I had to write like eight hours of code for it so I didn’t start seeings a bunch of Os and As out of the corner of my eye when he was feeling frisky.”

Sharon was startled into laughter. She had never to sit on an audio surveillance— never thought about this sort of thing before.

Maya kept talking, “I actually needed to figure out what sex sounds like, by himself or with another person, so I can get a visual feedback and know the difference between when he’s being choked to death versus when he’s just having trouble catching his breath because he’s having too much fun. Did you know how I had to figure out the difference? I had to map out the audio signatures of porn. I have watched so much porn on behalf of the dignity of Captain America—”

“Stop! Stop! Uncle!” Sharon was laughing so hard there were tears coming out of his eyes. 

“Of course, there is no way to really test it without asking Rogers to demonstrate the difference between the good sounds and the bad sounds,” Maya continued, showing little regard for Sharon’s ability to breathe. “But you know, I made it. So it probably works.”

~~~

Sharon was twenty-eight years old the first time she met Steve Rogers. He blushed slightly when he introduced himself to her and offered to help her move in. Sharon turned him down and she wondered if he would have been able to spot all the places she hid her weapons. 

“He’s the most awkward human being ever,” Maya said to her when Sharon was checking in at Maya’s office. “I’m glad I couldn’t actually hear him. It was painful to read.”

“I think he likes me,” Sharon said, unable to keep herself from smiling. She hadn’t expected Captain America to blush when he met her. She was a fangirl who literally had a Howling Commandos lunch box when she was seven. Sharon had be honestly worried she was going to embarrass herself and dishonor her family when she finally met Captain America. Instead, Steve was unexpectedly sweet and awkward, and Sharon got to be the cool one.

“Yeah, he definitely likes you,” Maya agreed, but she sounded pissed off by it. “He’s not that awkward with the females he meets at HQ. He practically tries to parent me when he sees me. He thinks I’m a teenager. And the worst of it is that if I punched him, I would only break my hand. I did the math, and I can’t make up the lack of mass with the amount of acceleration I can pick up to hit him hard enough for him to even feel it—”

“You met him here?” Sharon asked, trying to shift the conversation. 

“Yeah, he doesn’t remember me from the time he almost decapitated me in New York City. But Agent Romanoff introduced us here two weeks ago and he has seen me walking around here a couple of times. He asked Romanoff if S.H.I.E.L.D. recruited teenagers after he met me. Barton told me. He thought it was hilarious,” Maya said. “I mean, we both know that S.H.I.E.L.D. does recruit teenagers—but geez, you’d think he would be more sensitive to someone with a small stature. What, five years at six feet two, and all of sudden he forgets what it’s like to be five feet nothing?” 

Sharon looked at Maya again. Her dark hair was pulled back into a bun, but her bangs were flung about her eyes. Maya’s black eyeliner highlighted the depth of her eyes, her dark rimmed glasses punctuating the prominence and sharpness of her cheekbones, deep red lipstick showed off the fullness of her lips. 

Sharon took a breath. Maya looked ethereal and effortlessly feminine: only someone who’s barely looked at women in 90 years would possibly not to be moved by her beauty. 

“Is that why you started wearing makeup?” Sharon asked after a moment to try to break the silence. She had been staring intently at Maya’s face. 

“No, this is war paint, I’m Cheyenne,” Maya said with a straight face.

And just like that, the tension broke, and Sharon laughed. “You’re a jerk,” Sharon said. 

~~~

Sharon requested every other Fridays off so she could visits Aunt Peggy like Maya suggested.

Mostly she and Aunt Peggy still read together. Aunt Peggy had finally started to wear reading glasses: large ones with dark rims that looked like the ones that Clark Kent always wore. Instead of making her looking matronly, they made Aunt Peggy look more like the superhero she always was. 

Sometimes, Sharon caught Aunt Peggy looking at her from her book. Their eyes would meet, and Aunt Peggy would smile knowingly. And Sharon was thirteen years old again, completely in awe of her aunt. 

~~~

Sharon tried to do all of her paperwork at S.H.I.E.L.D. when Steve went on runs around the Capitol Mall.

When Sharon went to Maya’s office, Maya wasn’t there. One of the other analysts suggested that Sharon go check the twelfth floor surveillance room. 

Maya was not there either, but Forest and Siddiqui were. They were watching Steve run in a very tight compression shirt. 

“I don’t understand how that shirt doesn’t rip from the seams,” Forest was saying. 

“It’s pretty spectacular,” Siddiqui said. 

Sharon coughed. 

“Hey Sharon,” Siddiqui said. “Want to join us?”

“Agent 13,” Forest sat up straighter. 

“Does he always run in shirts that tight?” Sharon asked. Because Sharon supposedly worked a late shift at the hospital, she made sure she never ran into Steve in the mornings. She hadn’t actually seen how Steve dressed when he went running. 

“Yeah. Since he moved to Dupont Circle, his shirts got a lot tighter. I’m not complaining though,” Siddiqui said. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at Sharon. 

“Don’t think he’s gay though. Well… he hasn’t been responding to any of the dudes that constantly flirt with him anyway,” Forest said. “One of them—your neighbor from 5C—actually corned him with a kiss last week.”

“Really?” Sharon said. Brian of 5C was a very attractive man. 

“We thought he might freak out or something,” Siddiqui said. “Maya was ready to call in some reinforcement in case he—well—really freaked out. But he was nice about it. We didn’t have audio in that part of the building so I don’t know what he said—but it looked like he let the guy down easy.”

A thought flashed through Sharon’s head that was completely ridiculous. But possible. Maybe even likely. “Have you guys seen Maya?”

“I think she went to get food,” Siddiqui said. “She should be back in her office in a few.”

“Okay, thanks,” Sharon said and went back to Maya’s office to wait for her.

“Did you get him the apartment in Dupont Circle?” Sharon asked the moment Maya came back in with a bag that smelled like a burrito.

Maya looked slightly sheepish. “Well, he chose it. But I may have helped to direct his searches that way. Look, it’s one of the best places to defend in a crunch. The sightlines into the apartment are very manageable—”

“So it wasn’t because you wanted him to live in the center of the LBGT scene in DC?” Sharon asked. She had her answer when Maya’s mouth pulled into an unhappy line. Sharon moved closer to Maya, “Were you trying to get him have homophobic freakout?”

“No—” Maya said, but then she shook her head.

Sharon waited.

“Maybe a little,”

“Maya!”

“I didn’t want him to beat anyone up or commit a hate crime or something. I just wondered how he’d react to a guy hitting on him. No need to worry though, he is the perfect fuckin’ American hero—” Maya wasn’t meeting Sharon’s eyes. 

“Maya—talk to me, what’s going on?”

Maya looked at her. She took off her glasses and looked at Sharon’s mouth. 

Slowly, Maya put down her burrito on her desk and sat down on her chair. Then she looked away as she began to talk, “When we were growing up I always thought all those stories about him were bullshit. A poster child of Aryan purity fighting Hitler, looking out for the little guys. I didn’t buy any of it… the perfect white man saving all the oppressed—it all seemed like propaganda, worse than the Soviets. Except now I actually know him. Better than I should. Better than he deserves probably. And I know he fucking believes in his own image—”

Maya paused and took a deep breath, “Whatever he was before serum, he’s living now as that guy the war movies made him out to be. And I want to hate him except he literally walks little old ladies across the street. He doesn’t get mad when dudes kiss him. And he blushes when he talks to you and sneaks looks at your butt. And I just—I just want to punch him in the face,” Maya said. Maya’s voice got quieter as she talked. 

Sharon thought that maybe she understood. And the realization made her feel light headed. 

“Hey,” Sharon walked up to Maya, and placed Maya’s hand on her jaw when Maya still didn’t look at her. 

“You know I still like you best,” Sharon said. 

Maya didn’t say anything. But she finally looked up at Sharon. 

“I like you best,” Sharon said again. 

After a moment, Sharon felt the tension go out of Maya’s shoulders. Sharon stood there a while longer, then she said, “But you have to tell me how you got him to wear those super tight shirts.”

Maya laughed, “I’m not that good.”

A pause.

“Or am I? You may never know.”


	2. The Winter Soldier

Sharon’s phone buzzed as she was finishing her dinner. She glanced at the clock on her nightstand. 10:03PM. 

The message read: He just stopped at the yellow light on M Street. ETA 5 minutes. Call me

Sharon called Maya back immediately, and marveled at the novelty of it. She still wasn’t used to talking to Maya on the telephone. 

“I need you to check the audio wires in the basement,” Maya said immediately in lieu of hello. Maya never pretended she was a normal person when she was with Sharon. “Jones said it went out for about 7 seconds just before I came on shift. Same goes for the audio and video we have on the rooftop. I ran the logs, and I don’t see any reason for it. But your building has lots of rats, so I’m not going to panic yet.”

Sharon checked her gun. “His music is on. It came on about 15 minutes ago. I thought we took care of the issue. I thought we concluded he didn’t know how to program his radio--”

“God, don’t remind me. I sat through six separate meetings and two covert searches of his apartment to come to the conclusion it was not countersurveillance measures on his part, he’s just really old and doesn’t understand how his radio alarm clock works,” Maya said, “But yes, I thought we solved the music problem, so this shouldn’t be happening. I’m going to call in your backup to be on standby outside the building just in case. Bring your handheld radio when you check the wiring downstairs. If it looks bad at all, they’ll be moving on your mark.”

“On it,” Sharon said. Then as an afterthought, “I’ll wash some clean clothes while I’m down there.”

“Are you actually complaining that I did your laundry this week?” Maya asked. Sharon could hear her furiously typing away on her computer. Maya was probably doing five things at once right now. 

“You just did it to make all my neighbors think you’re my girlfriend,” Sharon said as she pulled on the scrubs over her head. 

“Yes, because Rogers talks to all the neighbors-- oh wait-- no, he talks to no one at your building except for you, because he’s a weird hermit with a crush. Anyway, I needed an excuse to check the servers down there.” 

As Maya talked, Sharon gathered fresh smelling sheets and scrubs that did not need to be laundered into her basket. 

“Also, did he even ask you if you swing his way?” Maya asked. “Because I could totally be your girlfriend,”

Sharon felt herself blush. They haven’t ever, except--

“You’re awfully pretty. Though despite my best efforts, you’re still a terrible cook,” Maya continued. 

“Well, you sure know how to talk to a girl-- So sweet-- That is so nice--” 

As Sharon was closing her door to go downstairs with her clean laundry-- Steve was coming up the stairs. 

“I gotta go, though. Okay, bye, ” Sharon said. She smiled easily at Steve-- who looked slightly ruffled as he smiled back-- 

“My aunt, she’s kind of an insomniac,” Sharon lied easily, but then she panicked for a moment and wondered how good Steve’s hearing was. 

But Steve didn’t seem to notice anything was amiss. 

“Yeah,” Steve said as he stared at her for a beat too long. Sharon could hear Maya’s voice in her head-- so awkward. 

“Hey, if you want--if you want, you can use my machine,” Steve said. “It might be cheaper than the one in the basement.”

“Yeah, and what does it cost?” Sharon asked. 

“A cup of coffee?” Steve asked. Sharon smiled. Steve’s voice was so sincere and earnest that Sharon was tempted to say yes. 

“Thank you,” Sharon said. “But I already have a load downstairs. Besides you don’t want my scrubs in your machine, I just finished a rotation in the infectious diseases ward, so--”

“Well, I will keep my distance,” Steve said. Taking it like rejection-- 

“Hopefully not too far away,” Sharon said automatically and then inwardly cringed. Maya will never let her hear the end of this. 

“Oh, I think you left your stereo on,” Sharon said as she walked away. 

“Oh. Yeah. Thank you,” Steve said. 

As soon Sharon was in the basement, her phone buzzed again in her basket. 

He’s going into his apartment through the window. Guess he didn’t think he left any music on in his apartment. Backup is setup for immediate evac if needed. 

Sharon left her basket in the basement and launched herself back up the stairs. 

“Attention all agents, the audio is looping in the apartment,” Maya’s voice came through the radio, “Video just showed Rogers entering his apartment through the window, but there is no corresponding audio movement inside the apartment.”

“I’m ready to move in,” Sharon positioned herself just to the left of Steve’s door and spoke into her handheld radio. “I hear talking inside.”

Agent Martinez’s voice came on suddenly, “Our cameras on the roof just went offline. Agent 13, can you reposition yourself--”

Then the sound of a rifle going off. A single shot. 

“Active fire!” Sharon said into her radio. “Is that any of you?”

“Negative, move in!”

In one motion, Sharon dropped her radio straight into her pocket, and kicked the door opened. 

“Captain Rogers,” Sharon called out as she swept the apartment with her gun. She methodically cleared room to room, taking in that it was Steve’s phonograph not radio that was still piping out music-- “Captain, I’m Agent 13 of SHIELD Special Services.”

“Kate?” Steve’s expression was tight, but a quick visual scan of him didn’t show any obvious bullet wounds on him. 

“I’m assigned to protect you,” Sharon said as she looked at the wall where the shot came through. The shooter was on the move already. 

“On whose orders?” Steve asked.

“His,” Sharon said when she saw Director Fury on the ground. 

“Foxtrot is down,” Sharon said after she fished her radio from her pocket. “He’s unresponsive. I need EMTs.”

“Do we have a 20 on the shooter?” Martinez asked.

“Tell them I’m in pursuit,” Steve said as he jumped outside of the window. 

“Shooter is going southwest on the rooftop of 1502 Connecticut. Captain Rogers is in pursuit,” Sharon said as she began emergency first aid on Fury. Single gunshot wound into the chest cavity. Most likely a collapsed lung that was filling with fluids. 

It took forty four seconds for the rest of her team to be in Steve’s apartment. 

~~~

“It was Fury,” Maya told Sharon as she typed furious with her hands on two separate keyboards, looking from one computer display to the next without pause. “Fury was the one the caused the seven seconds break on the surveillance in Rogers’ apartment. That must be when he got into the apartment.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Sharon sagged in Maya’s chair. Her skirt suit was wrinkling under her. “Why hide in Rogers’ apartment? He knew we were on top of Rogers’ apartment. Who was he hiding from?”

Maya’s typing stopped and she looked at Sharon. “He must have known that I’m deaf. He didn’t loop the audio surveillance like I first thought, but somehow he figured out that the music he played defeated my audio recognition software. He knew exactly what he was doing, and who was on shift when he went into Rogers’ apartment,” Maya said. 

Sharon sunk further into the chair, feeling exhausted. She had been up for over thirty hours, and the adrenaline was finally draining from her. She thought about all the emotions she should be feeling, but mostly she felt numb. 

Nick Fury was dead. 

Sharon didn’t realize she was crying until Maya was in front of her suddenly, slightly blurred. Maya’s left hand was gently wiping the tears from Sharon’s face. 

“Hey,” Maya said softly. “It’s not your fault.”

Sharon nodded and leaned into Maya’s hand. 

“We’ll figure it out,” Maya said and pulled Sharon into a hug. Sharon held on and let Maya’s tiny frame envelop her, breathing in the scent of sandalwood and mint. 

Sharon didn’t know how long they had stayed like that when Sharon’s phone buzzed in her pocket.

“The Secretary wants to see me in his office in ten minutes,” Sharon said after she read the message.

“Didn’t you already brief literally everyone and their mother?” Maya frowned. “What more could you possibly tell him?” 

“I guess he wants to hear it from me,” Sharon said as she pulled herself up from Maya’s embrace and tried to smooth out her suit.

“It’s not your fault,” Maya said again firmly as she placed her hand back on Sharon’s face. 

Sharon let Maya tip their foreheads against each other and for a minute they just breathed together. 

Then because the Secretary wanted to see her, Sharon detangled herself from Maya and went to the bathroom to clean herself up before the meeting.

~~~

Secretary Alexander Pierce’s office was on the top floor of the Triskeleton with an expansive view of the Capitol. 

When Sharon came up the elevator, Pierce was already waiting for Sharon just outside of his office.

“Hi Sharon,” Pierce held out his hand with a smile. 

“Mister Secretary,” Sharon shook his hand.

“Captain America is about to come in for a debriefing, but I just wanted a quick word with you,” Pierce said. “I never got a chance to thank you for your service-- Roxy speaks very highly of you.”

“Thank you, Mr. Secretary,” Sharon said-- taken aback. That had been almost two years ago, and the Secretary had never shown any indication of being aware of Sharon’s existence before. 

“Roxy and Alexie will be back in the States for three weeks this December, and she wanted to make sure I personally invited you over to our house for dinner,” Pierce continued.

“Of course, thank you, Mr. Secretary,” Sharon said. She had talked to Roxanna two weeks ago and Roxanna hadn’t mention anything about coming back--

“Oh, there is Captain Rogers,” Pierce said, “I look forward to getting to know you better over dinner.”

“Yes, sir,” Sharon said quickly and excused herself. 

As she walked past Steve, she quickly said, “Captain.”

“Neighbor,” Steve said without making eye contact, betrayal dripping from his voice. 

Sharon hesitated for a moment before going back to Maya’s office-- words forming and dying in her throat-- she didn’t feel like defending herself for doing her job… but she was almost certain that Pierce had intended for Rogers to see her talking to Pierce. 

~~~

When Sharon made her way back to Maya’s office, Maya was frowning at one of her monitors. Maya’s glasses were almost falling off her face. 

“Something weird is going on. All of S.T.R.I.K.E. is in the building,” Maya said when she saw Sharon coming back into the room. “But they’re positioning themselves on different floors--”

“Higher floors or lower floors,” Sharon said as she moved to read the displays over Maya’s shoulders. 

“Higher floors,” Maya said, a crease forming between her brows. “And they’re on a encrypted channel.”

Sharon felt her adrenaline spiking again. “I’ll go down to the main command center,” Sharon said. “Text me if you find any thing else out.” 

“Be careful,” Maya looked up at her. “Be safe.”

Sharon held Maya’s eyes. “You too.”

~~~

Sharon was surprised at how few people seemed to looking into Nick Fury’s assassination when she came into the main command center. All the monitor displays that she could see appeared to be showing various last minute preparations for Project Insight instead. 

Her phone vibrated lightly-- set to a special rhythm reserved for Maya. 

They’re trying to restrain Captain America on the elevators. Holy crap he jus

Maya’s text stopped mid sentence, but another text came immediately afterward. 

He’s crazy. ge jumped 25 floors and he’s alive and on the move. i don’t know what’s going on but they’re trying to kill him

Sharon felt her vision narrowing, and she willed herself to relax. Breathe in, breathe out-- 

She tried not let the others see her glancing her down at her phone, but no one was paying any attention to her. 

Is this secure? Sharon typed quickly on her phone. 

The reply came instantly. Of course it’s secure. Have you met me? 

He is going after his motorcycle

Almost two minutes passed before the next message--

He is taking on a quinjet!!!

Sharon glanced around her, but none of the monitors were showing any of the actions that Maya was describing. 

I kind of hate him but geez he’s good. He’s killing the quinjet with his shield. 

I traced one of the encrypted channel to Sitwell. He’s involved in this

Jasper Sitwell was in the command room, talking in a low voice to one of the techs, but Sharon could not hear him. 

CA just broke out of the parameter. they’re trying to reroute street cameras

I’m giving him a window. maybe two minutes tops

Sharon exhaled slowly. 

A low siren for emergency operations rang out in the room. A photograph of Steve’s S.H.I.E.L.D. ID was brought up on the main screen, followed by the code for a priority manhunt. 

“Eyes here,” Sitwell said suddenly, voice loud, “Whatever your op is, bury it. This is Level One. Contact the DOT. I want all the traffic lights in the district to go red. Shut down all runways at BWI, IAD and Reagan. All the security cameras in the city, go through this monitor right here. Scan all open sources, I want phones, computers, PDAs, whatever. If someone tweets about this guy I want to know about it--”

“With all due respect, sir, if S.H.I.E.L.D. is conducting a manhunt for Captain America, we deserve to know why,” Sharon said, her voice steady. She had little doubt S.H.I.E.LD. had been prepared to take down Captain America well before Steve’s conversation with Pierce. 

“Because he lied to us--” Pierce said as he walked into the room. The room was silent at once. No Secretary of Defense has ever gone down to the command center before.

“Captain Rogers has information about the death of Director Fury,” Piece continued. “He refused to share it. As difficult as it is to accept, Captain America is now a fugitive from S.H.I.E.L.D.”

The room was quiet. Sharon did not respond, and neither did anyone else. It was the silence that shocked Sharon the most. The quiet acceptance of Pierce’s words. Sharon felt the blood drain from her face-- she felt lightheaded from it. 

“Now move,” Sitwell commanded. “You have your orders.” 

The room settled back into action immediately while Pierce ambled to her deliberately. 

“I understand this may be especially difficult for you,” Pierce said when he was close enough Sharon could faintly smell his aftershave. “But Director Fury has always had the utmost faith in you. That’s why he gave you the assignment to protect Captain Rogers.” As Pierce spoke, he reached out his left hand and gently squeezed Sharon’s shoulders. It was meant to be a paternal gesture, but Sharon had to fight all of her instincts not to flinch. 

“Yes, sir,” Sharon said, trying to keep her face and her voice neutral. 

Pierce opened his mouth to continue, but stopped when he saw Rumlow entered the room in a rush. Rumlow tilted his head slightly toward the door, and Pierce nodded. 

“Excuse me,” Pierce said, and followed Rumlow out of the room again.

The moment Pierce left the room, Sharon’s phone softly buzzed with another message from Maya. This is seriously fucked up. Meet me at your real apartment as soon as you can. 

~~~

Sharon couldn’t extract herself from S.H.I.E.L.D. until close to 7PM without raising suspicions. But based on what she was able to access, it looked like S.H.I.E.L.D. hadn’t manage to kill or capture Steve Rogers yet. 

When she finally got back to her apartment, Maya was sprawled out crossed legged in Sharon’s living room with two laptops next to her and several cartons of takeout around her. Maya’s glasses were still on her face. 

Sharon’s apartment smelled heavily of turmeric and cumin. 

Sharon dropped her bag, kicked off her shoes, sunk down next to Maya, and grabbed one of the boxes of takeout. 

“Sit rep?” Sharon asked as she took out a slightly soggy samosa from the box and ate it in two bites. 

“Aside from the giant SNAFU that is this manhunt?” Maya asked. She handed Sharon a napkin and a box of rice and curry. “Nothing new really. I fucked up S.H.I.E.L.D.’s facial recognition systems as much as I could without being too obvious. But I have a feeling Rogers is going to draw attention to himself. You got anything?”

“Sitwell is definitely involved,” Sharon said. “Probably all of S.T.R.I.K.E… but I have no idea what the endgame is. Or why Nick was assassinated and by whom. Do you think this is about the Lemurian Star? Project Insight?”

Maya’s typing paused. She looked up at Sharon, “Well, they’re three omnipotent gunships in the sky. What could possibly go wrong?”

Sharon sighed. Her head was swimming from the events of the past two days. “Does Aunt Peggy know what’s going on?” Sharon asked after a long silence. She didn’t know how Maya would know, but she was certain that she did. 

“Yes,” Maya said, her eyes steady on Sharon. “Aunt Peggy still has eyes and ears inside S.H.I.E.L.D. aside from us. They can’t bury something this big from her. I know you wanted to tell her about Fury yourself, but now with all of this--”

“What kind of organization puts a kill order on any man, let alone a national hero, just because he is withholding information?” Sharon asked softly as she set down the food. “What does it say about us that we’re expected to follow those orders without question? This is not the organization that Aunt Peggy founded. It must be breaking her heart.” 

“I think Aunt Peggy has a lot of faith in Captain America and his abilities to get through this,” Maya said. “After seeing him taking out that quinjet, I’m inclined to agree with her. We need to figure out why S.H.I.E.L.D. is after Rogers, and who killed Fury.”

“What’s the plan?” Sharon asked, then she leaned in and rested her head on Maya’s left shoulder. 

“I appreciate your confidence that I have a plan,” Maya laughed softly. She pressed her hand lightly on Sharon’s face. “But actually, the plan right now is for my tools and bots to hack the heck out of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s compartmentalized systems that I don’t have access to yet, and that, unfortunately takes time. So the short term plan is to get some rest. You didn’t sleep last night either. I have a feeling we’ll need you to be in tip top condition to shoot a lot of people before all of this is done.”

As if her body was in perfect alignment with Maya’s expectations, Sharon yawned. 

“I should go see Aunt Peggy,” Sharon said as she stifled another yawn. 

“Trust me, she’d want you to get some rest,” Maya said. “Aunt Peggy has a lot more experience dealing with this sort of cluster fuck than us-- trust her to do what she needs to do-- She may be getting lost in her mind occasionally, but she’s still the smartest person in the room.” Maya’s tone was completely matter of fact, her conviction in Aunt Peggy’s competence so complete, that Sharon felt the tension in herself unclench slightly. The sky is blue, the ducks are coming back to the Capitol, and Aunt Peggy is still the smartest person in the room. 

“I love you,” Sharon said. 

“I know,” Maya smiled. “And if you’re done eating, you should go shower and sleep. You smell like three days old coffee and sweaty command center.”

Sharon laughed and lightly whacked Maya’s shoulder, but she did as she was told. 

~~~

When Sharon came out of the shower, she found Maya sitting on Sharon’s bed wearing one of Sharon’s old T-shirts from high school and pajama bottoms. Maya had one of her laptops with her in bed and she was intently reading something. Maya’s glasses were sitting on the nightstand. The sight made some part of Sharon’s mind calm. The world outside was on fire, but right now, everything was exactly as it had always been inside their little bubble. 

But whatever Maya was reading was making her frown. Sharon put her hand on Maya’s shoulders, and waited for Maya to look at her. “What’s wrong?” 

“Nothing you need to worry about right now,” Maya said as she closed her laptop. “Rogers is still alive. S.H.I.E.L.D. is still looking for him. Now sleep.”

Sharon was too exhausted to argue-- to exhausted to think. She laid down next to Maya, who turned off the light on Sharon’s nightstand, then laid down too. 

Maya put her right hand gently on Sharon’s face.

Sharon closed her eyes. 

Then her phone started ringing, and Sharon opened her eyes to bright sunlight already pouring into her bedroom. Maya was still asleep next to her. Her tiny frame curled protectively around Sharon. As Sharon watched her sleep, she felt a sense of fondness so profound that it made her breathless for a moment. 

“Hello,” Sharon picked up the phone without jostling Maya. 

“Sharon, it’s me, Roxanna,” came the response. Sharon was instantly awake.

“What’s wrong?” Sharon asked as she sat up slowly, careful not to disturb Maya. 

“I’m so sorry to bother you,” Roxanna said. “But I didn’t know who else to call-- Dad isn’t even taking my calls. I know he gets busy-- but--”

“It’s okay. Tell me what’s wrong,” Sharon said. Next to her, Maya slept on. 

“Do you remember Dad’s housekeeper, Renata?” Roxanna asked. And Sharon tried to clearly remember the older woman who had stopped by Roxanna’s house once a month. 

“She made those dumplings for you,” Sharon said. 

“Yes--” Roxanna said, and then let out a soft sob, “She didn’t go home last night. Her husband called me. She was supposed to come home around 10 after she was done at my Dad’s house, but she never did. I don’t know what’s going on, but my Dad isn’t taking calls from him either.”

Sharon took a deep breath. 

“Oh Sharon, I think something terrible happened to her,” Roxanna said. “Fahaji tried calling the police but they refuse to take a report because she’s only been gone ten hours-- Sharon, she’s the closest thing I have to a mom--”

“Roxanna, where are you right now?” Sharon asked. 

“What do you mean?” Roxanna asked, pausing. “I’m at the Embassy residence in Madrid.”

“I think you should take a couple of days of vacation. There is really nothing you can do all the way across the Atlantic. I’ll look into it. Meanwhile, you should take the car out, and show Alexandria the countryside,” Sharon said. This had been their code before-- this was code for when Sharon wanted Roxanna to exfil herself if Sharon was not with her-- Sharon had picked a safe house near Madrid and shown it Roxanna before she had been reassigned back to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. 

Roxanna was quiet for a moment, when she spoke again, her voice was calmer. Sharon saw in her mind’s eye Roxanna breathing slowly in and out like Sharon had taught her. “Yes. You’re right of course. Will you be joining me any time soon?”

“As soon as I can. It might take a while, but as soon as I can I’ll come, I promise,” Sharon said. 

“Okay,” Roxanna said. “Stay safe.”

“You too,” Sharon said and hangup.

Maya’s eyes were open. 

“What’s going on?” Maya asked. 

I think Alexander Pierce is a part of whatever this is, Sharon thought. I think the United States Secretary of Defense is compromised, and there is going to be a lot of collateral damage. I think when this is all over people are going to go after Roxanna. 

“Nothing you need to worry about right now,” Sharon said, echoing what Maya had said the night before. 

Maya smiled, “You’re being such a punk.”

~~~

Sharon and Maya were back at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ a hour after they woke up. 

Maya gave Sharon a tiny earbud before they parted. “Secure comms for us. The range is short. We’ll both have to be in the building probably, but there is no way anyone is going to be able to intercept it. It might also give us brain cancer -- I couldn’t exactly test it for long term side effects-- so you know, hopefully we don’t live a super long life and find out. ”

Sharon laughed and shook out her hair over her ears to cover the earbud. Maya’s eyes followed the movement of Sharon’s hair and then Maya reached out gently tucked one strand of hair that had fallen on Sharon’s face back into place. “Be careful,” she said. 

“You too,” Sharon said. She imagined for a moment catching Maya’s hand and kissing it before they parted, but the thought left her as soon as it formed. And she watched Maya tilt her head and look at Sharon, before walking away. 

“Comm check?” Maya asked when they were over 20 feet away from each other. Her voice coming clearly through the earbud.

“I hear you five by five,” Sharon said. 

“I read you five by five,” Maya said. 

“Going silent,” Sharon said as she walked into the main command room. 

“What’s the status this morning?” Sharon asked Martinez as he was stretched out on his chair. 

“No change,” Martinez replied. Then he leaned a little closer to Sharon, and spoke more softly, “There was an authorized short range ballistic missile hit on a site in New Jersey last night. They tried to keep it quiet, but you know how it is. They didn’t get him though. They’re still scanning all channels for him.”

Sharon pressed her hand on Martinez’s shoulder and squeezed lightly. Thanking him. 

There was exactly one person who could call for a ballistic missile strike on U.S. soil that was not the President of the United States, and Sharon knew his daughter well. 

~~~

Sharon searched for police reports on Renata Sanchez, but she was not surprised when she found none-- nor was there any unidentified bodies that had been reported in the past twelve hours. Sharon then spent nearly three hours trying to locate any and all reports regarding Pierce’s residence without actually searching for Pierce’s address, but to no avail. The data had clearly been so carefully managed that Sharon couldn’t even pull up any information on Pierce’s neighbors. 

Sharon knew she was being reckless doing these searches without asking for Maya’s help to clean up after her, but Sharon had been a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for a long time, and she knew a few tricks of her own. 

She wasn’t ready to tell Maya about her suspicion about Pierce yet. There were fights, and then there was going to war with the United States Secretary of Defense-- a war that Maya would too happily wade in after Sharon. 

But after hours of fruitless searches, Sharon went back to her original lead, Fury’s assassination. Sharon tried to pull up the autopsy report on Fury at her workstation, but the screen lit up with a “Denied Access” banner. This was something Maya could easily get for her without raising suspicions. 

Sharon opened her comms, and asked softly, “Maya, can you get me the autopsy report on Fury?” 

“No, sorry, too busy hacking street cameras right now. I think Fury’s assassin found Rogers, and right now Northwest DC is a war zone. S.H.I.E.L.D. is suppressing all police activity in the area--”

Sharon bit her lip to stop the sharply formed words in mouth. 

“Holy crap, that is some crazy robotic arm,” Maya said. “Wait-- is he speaking Russian?”

“Rogers isn’t alone at least,” Maya continued, “Romanov is with him, and another guy I’m running facial recognition on.”

A long pause. 

“Fuck! Romanov is shot--” 

“Is there anything we can do?” Sharon whispered. 

“I’m routing emergency services to parameter to try to help the civilians trapped in the area, but S.T.R.I.K.E. is moving in,” Maya said. “They’re compartmentalizing it-- shit, they might be making this a hit.”

“Is there any news helicopters in that area?” Sharon asked. 

“No, this is too close to the no fly zone,” Maya said. Then she understood. “I’m rerouting two of them into the area. One of them will be in visual range in about ninety seconds. It’s not going to look pretty when they trace what happened to their navigation systems but maybe I can--FUCK FUCK FUCK”

“What’s wrong?” It took all of Sharon’s training to keep her voice low. 

“Steve thinks it’s Bucky,” Maya said. “Rogers thinks the assassin with the arm is Bucky Barnes.”

Sharon tried and failed to absorb what Maya said. 

“Fuck me, Rogers is compromised. S.T.R.I.K.E. is moving in to arrest him,” Maya said. Her voice sounded resigned. “The newscopter is in visual range.” A pause. “They’re taking Rogers into custody.” 

~~~

Sharon’s appreciation for the capability of Steve Rogers grew by leaps and bounds when less than twenty minutes later, the manhunt for Captain America was back on in full swing. Somehow, Steve had managed to escape from S.T.R.I.K.E.’s custody.

“I identified the other guy helping Rogers,” Maya’s voice came on in her ear. “Air Force, pararescue. I deleted his classified military record already, but they had his car’s license plate so they already have his name.”

Maya paused, and Sharon could hear her taking in a deep breath. 

“I don’t know how much more help we can give Rogers without figuring out the endgame here,” Maya said. “But I can’t hack the biometrics locks around the compartment I need inside S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Whose biometrics do you need?” Sharon asked. She had a crazy plan forming in her head. 

“The Secretary of Defense’s eyeball might be nice,” Maya said. “Are you going to get it for me Loki style?”

“I don’t have a god complex yet, but I think I know where I can get a scan of his eye. Is that enough?” Sharon asked, keeping her voice low. 

“It might be.”

~~~

“Eight years ago, I was on a parameter detail for a meeting at Stark Industries’ Washington DC office. The meeting was hosted by Obadiah Stane for the development of the Jericho missiles,” Sharon said as Maya immediately pulled up the sigmatics for the Stark Industries’ DC office building on the computer in her office. “Alexander Pierce was one of attendees.” 

“Stane got a complete biometrics scan of Pierce,” Maya said. “Of course he did.”

“I’m pretty sure he got a biometric scan of everyone in attendance, but yes, he definitely got Pierce’s biometrics,” Sharon said. 

“Never thought I would be grateful to Stane, but geez, this might actually work,” Maya said, as the display began to rotate on her screen. “The Stark building has two primary security systems, including its own biometrics locks, parameter and internal guards. The data is stored on a server on the third floor, and it’s air gapped. Stark’s just as paranoid as S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“And just as vulnerable to internal threats,” Sharon said. “How many backdoors did you build in it when you were at Stark Industries?”

Maya smiled, “Enough. I still need to be physically in the building to download the biometrics though, but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

“What about Steve and Natasha and their friend?” Sharon asked. 

“The new friend is Sam Wilson,” Maya said. “A former operator for the F.A.L.C.O.N. prototype in the Air Force. He’s actually got a pretty impressive service record. Given how quickly they got out of S.T.R.I.K.E. custody, he must be useful guy to have around. Anyway, I killed all of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s info on the F.A.L.C.O.N. project about three weeks after I came onboard here, so I’m pretty confident S.H.I.E.L.D. have no idea how to calculate for Wilson’s capabilities. But there is not much we can do for them right now because we still don’t know why both Fury’s assassin and S.H.I.E.L.D. want Rogers dead.”

“Why did you kill S.H.I.E.L.D.’s info on--” Sharon swallowed the rest of her question because she knew the answer already. “You built it. F.A.L.C.O.N. was one of your babies.”

“Only two components of the final product were mine,” Maya shrugged. 

Sharon almost never pried, but she could not help the next question that fell out of her mouth, “How long, Maya? How long have you been planning to take down S.H.I.E.L.D. yourself?”

“Wasn’t I always?” Maya met Sharon’s eyes steadily. 

Sharon held her gaze. Sharon always did know. 

Maya had never suggested anything else to Sharon. Sharon never thought too deeply about it, never questioned Maya. Because--

Because Sharon trusted Maya above all else. That’s all it ever mattered. 

They let the silence fall between them, settle in. 

Sharon wondered what Maya saw on her face, because all she saw on Maya’s face was the grim determination--the still stubbornness that was always there before she dragged Sharon into another fight where the odds were against them. Just like always, it didn’t matter who they were fighting. 

Sharon nodded, and Maya smiled. 

“I should go see Aunt Peggy,” Sharon finally said. 

Maya gently touched her face even though she had a clear view of Sharon’s mouth. “They tripled the surveillance on her. Probably because they think Rogers may try to talk to her. I can’t think of any way to have secure comms with her without drawing suspicion,” Maya said after a moment. “So you’ll have to watch what you say.”

“There’s only one thing I need to ask her about,” Sharon said. 

~~~

“Tell me about Sergeant Barnes,” Sharon said as she held Aunt Peggy’s hand. Aunt Peggy laughed, a soft exhalation of breath. 

Then, Aunt Peggy looked steadily at Sharon, as her hand tightened slightly around Sharon’s. Aunt Peggy’s brown eyes were clear and kind.

The air shifted around them.

And suddenly, Sharon felt young and foolish. 

Aunt Peggy had toppled regimes. 

Aunt Peggy led S.H.I.E.L.D. for over thirty years. 

A prominent historian had written a book about why Aunt Peggy was the best strategist of the modern age. 

Aunt Peggy knew what was going on better than Sharon did. 

Sharon wonder for a moment, if she should just take out the twelve S.H.I.E.L.D. agents “guarding” Aunt Peggy and make a run for it with Aunt Peggy. 

But that was stupid. Whatever was going on, Sharon had a dawning realization that Aunt Peggy had pieces on the board. 

“When Sergeant Barnes fell from the train,” Aunt Peggy said slowly, “Steve promised to never stop until all of Hydra was dead or captured.”

Sharon waited.

“Steve was willing to burn it all down for him,” Aunt Peggy said, her voice a warning, as her hand tightened more around Sharon’s hand. “Steve will tear down anyone standing in the way to get to his best friend.”

~~~

When Sharon made her way back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters it was almost midnight. Maya was back in her office, but Agent Freeman was there as well. He didn’t seem to notice Sharon’s approach. Sharon watched Agent Freeman put his hand on Maya’s shoulders, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he spoke to Maya. Sharon knew Agent Freeman had unsubtly asked several other agents if Maya was single. Sharon clicked her heels on the floor loudly enough for Freeman to hear her. He looked up at her and let his hand fall to his side. 

“Agent 13,” Freeman said.

“Agent Freeman,” Sharon greeted back. 

“I gotta get back to my station,” Freeman said as he turned to Maya, “I definitely owe you a coffee.”

Maya smiled at him sweetly, “How about next Friday before my shift starts?” 

“Done!” Freeman’s smile engulfed his face. “Can’t wait.”

“Bye, Charlie,” Maya waved as Freeman exited the office.

“In the middle of a crisis?” Sharon asked when Agent Freeman was clearly out of hearing range. 

“Yeah, why do you think I told him next Friday?” Maya said. She walked over to her office door, closed it, and engaged the lock. “If we don’t have this thing figured out in the next twenty-four hours, we’ll all probably be dead by next Friday, and I won’t have to let him down easy.” 

“And if we don’t all die horribly?” Sharon asked, as Maya walked back toward her, stopping just in front of her. 

“You can fight him for the pleasure of my company,” Maya laughed. “But we all know who’d win.”

“You like me best,” Sharon said as she reached out and touched Maya’s shoulder lightly. The same spot that Freeman had placed her hand. 

Maya looked at her, a smile in her eyes. “In the middle of a crisis?” Maya echoed Sharon’s earlier question in the exact same way Sharon had said it. 

“You’re a jerk,” Sharon laughed because it was a perfect impression of her as always, and Sharon felt a little ridiculous. 

“I’m a jerk who has a scan of Pierce’s eye,” Maya said. 

“What did you find out?” Sharon sobered immediately. 

“Nothing yet. I had to write code to make the lock accept the scan for the real thing, and the computer is still doing the rendering to make it look more like we actually have his eyeball,” Maya said.

“How long?”

“At least a couple more hours. The eye is pretty complicated as it turned out,” Maya said. “We might as well take a nap while we can.” Maya gestured to the sofa in her office that was barely big enough for a eight year old, let alone two adults. 

Maya must have saw the way Sharon was looking at it, because Maya walked over to the sofa, and somehow unfolded into a twin size futon like origami. 

“We’ll both fit,” Maya said, looking at Sharon. “If I steal a couple of cushions from down the hall we can make a fort. There are a lot of people sleeping in the building tonight since Insight is launching tomorrow at 08:00.” 

Sharon wondered if her body had been conditioned to accept everything that Maya say as gospel because the moment Maya mentioned sleep, Sharon’s body obediently let exhaustion flood through her. Sharon looked at the sofa bed again, then walked over, laid down, and opened her arm. Maya joined her immediately. Both of them still wearing their work clothes. 

“Any updates on Captain America?” Sharon asked once Maya placed her hand lightly on Sharon’s face. 

“No change. Probably a good thing,” Maya said. “What did you find out from Aunt Peggy?”

“Not to get in the way when Steve Rogers is trying to get to his best friend,” Sharon said. 

Maya huffed with laughter. “Maybe Rogers and I are more alike than I thought.” 

Sharon smiled. After a beat she asked, “Do you think it’s him? That Bucky Barnes survived somehow all these years?”

“The camera angle I had, I could only see Rogers’ face, and I read what he said. He certainly thinks it’s Bucky,” Maya said. “Though from the look of it, I’d say Barnes doesn’t remember him. I’d guess whatever happened to him, if it’s him, included brainwashing.”

Sharon felt a chill in the back of her spine. She couldn’t imagine what would happen if Maya--if she--

“Let’s make sure you never fall off a train,” Maya said as her hand gently stroked Sharon’s hair as if reading Sharon’s thoughts. 

Sharon inhaled the scent of sandalwood and mint, and tightened her arms around Maya. Just before unconsciousness took her, a stray thought ran through Sharon’s head--

~~~

Sharon woke up at 5am. She managed to get up from the narrow bed without waking up Maya. A glance at the computer program Maya was running showed it estimated another thirty minutes before completion. 

Sharon adjusted the gun on her side, her holster had dug into her skin as she slept. She had been so tired, she hadn’t even bothered taking off her gun, and it left an oddly shaped imprint on her side. She was a mess. 

Sharon left a note for Maya that she was going to change and shower in the locker room, then left Maya’s office. 

Sharon felt vaguely more human after her shower, and she put on her spare suit. When she checked her phone for the time, she saw that S.H.I.E.L.D. had initiated a countdown clock to the launch of Project Insight for all its Headquarters personnel. A little over two hours left. 

Sharon walked swiftly back to Maya’s office. Maya was already awake and typing away at one of her computers. Maya’s glasses were back on, but they were slipping off her face again. 

“What’s your plan for stopping Project Insight?” Sharon asked. 

Maya turned around to look at her with one raised eyebrow. 

“They are three gunships in the sky,” Sharon said. “You were unwilling to let S.H.I.E.L.D. have a prototype of the F.A.L.C.O.N. You’re not going to let them launch three gunships in the sky.”

Maya looked at Sharon for a moment, then she smiled. 

“I fucked the physical specs for three components of the mounting systems for all the guns while they were being designed,” Maya said. “So when they were installed, the guns on the helicarrier’s accuracy is off by approximately .5 meters after the helicarriers are above 3000 feet, but only when they are pointed in a downward direction. Their ground testing didn’t catch it because the guns were pointed parallel to their targets, or not high enough to account for the error.”

Half a meter. Just enough to miss any human targets they were aiming at, Sharon realized immediately. 

“S.H.I.E.L.D. will only be able to figure out there is a problem after the ships are already airborne and they start their initial testing. By then the cost of bringing them back down, and trying to isolate and fix the problem is going to be so astronomical. It will give Congress the excuse they have been looking for to shut down S.H.I.E.L.D.” 

“It’s brilliant,” Sharon said, her breath catching in her throat. She stepped into Maya’s personal space and leaned in slowly until their heads was touching. “You’re brilliant.”

“You’re not going to ask me why I didn’t tell you?” Maya asked as her hand came up on Sharon’s face. Sharon couldn’t see it, but she could tell that Maya was smiling. 

“I assume it’s because what you did was technically sedition, sabotage, and possibly treason against the United States of America,” Sharon said slowly. “But I was thinking about going up against the United States Secretary of Defense anyway, so your secret is safe with me.”

“I love you,” Maya said softly. 

“I know,” Sharon said. 

~~~

Sharon was in the command center during the final launching sequence of Project Insight when Steve’s voice came over the PA system. 

“Attention, all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. This is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days, some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D. is not what we thought it was, it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader.”

Maya’s voice came on in her ear as Steve was talking. “Well shit, here goes my brilliant plan. They won’t care if they have to fire multiple shots and kill a bunch of civilians, fuck--”

“... how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want: absolute control. They shot the Nick Fury and it won't end there. If you launch those Helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way, unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high…”

“I’m attacking the navigation system right now. See if you can delay the launch on your end,” Maya said at the same time as Steve’s speech. 

Sharon breathed slowly, and looked immediately to Cooper on the launching panel. Cooper is a good man and Sharon could see him processing Steve’s words just as Rumlow and six members of S.T.R.I.K.E. had marched into the room. 

In a moment Rumlow was standing directly over Cooper. “Is there a problem?” Rumlow asked. 

Cooper shook his head, “I’m…” But Cooper didn’t move. 

“Is there a problem?” Rumlow asked again. 

“I’m sorry sir,” Cooper said, taking a shaky breath. “I’m not going to launch those ships. Captain’s orders.”

Sharon’s hand went to her gun just as Rumlow pulled out his and pointed it directly at Cooper’s head. 

“Move away from your station,” Rumlow commanded just as Sharon drew her weapon and moved next to them. 

“Like he said, Captain’s orders,” Sharon said. Around her, she saw and heard her fellow agents draw their weapons at S.T.R.I.K.E. just as S.T.R.I.K.E. drew down on them. 

Sharon tried to keep her breathing even. The lines of fire were absolutely ridiculous. Friendly fire was going to take out half the room if they weren’t careful.

“You picked the wrong side, agent,” Rumlow said. 

“Depends on where you are standing,” Sharon said. She watched Rumlow lower his weapon-- the same time she heard the unmistakable sound of a gun slide pushing forward in her ear-- in front of her, Rumlow’s knife slashed toward her. Sharon pulled back as fast as she could but the blade connected with the side of her arm and she dropped her gun. The sound of gunshots in her ear and around her. Sharon ducked under the desk and kicked Cooper’s chair out of Rumlow’s line of fire as two more gunshots sounded in her earpiece. Sharon mentally shook herself as she got out from underneath the dashboard, telling herself to focus on what’s in front of her. Rumlow already initiated the launch sequence and he was moving out of the room. Sharon fired toward him, but the shots missed. 

There was silence in her headset. Sharon forced herself to take a deep breath, and regripped her weapon. Then she fired at the three remaining S.T.R.I.K.E. members still standing in the room. Her shot finally connected, and first guy in the S.T.R.I.K.E. uniform went down. She took another breath, and fire again, one more went down. Martinez took out the last member of S.T.R.I.K.E. in the room. 

Sharon took a deep breathe, but before panic set in, Maya broke the silence. It was with a status report and with instructions. “Sorry I distracted you. I had some company that I took care of. They figured out pretty quick that I’ve got five techs working with me trying to disable the helicarriers. There are three S.T.R.I.K.E. members being directed to move on Siddiqui and Forest, because the two of them are working on disabling the power to the engine blocks. You can intercept them on the 23rd floor, corridor C.”

“Roger that,” Sharon said. She checked her weapon. Six shots left. And a spare full magazine in her boot. Sharon moved. All around her, the evacuation alarm blasted through the speakers. 

~~~

“They’re directly behind the wall on your right,” Maya said as Sharon approached the entrance to corridor C. 

Sharon crouched down silently and listened for the footfall. She fired directly into the wall six times then she rolled forward toward the door. As she dropped the empty magazine and reloaded, gunshots flew liberally above her head through the wall. A second later, Jeffreys kicked opened the door to the corridor, and Sharon shot him in the face. The guy behind Jeffreys barely managed to shove Jeffreys’ crumpling body out of the way before Sharon shot him in the head too. 

Sharon kicked away their weapons. The third member of S.T.R.I.K.E. was already down-- caught by Sharon’s bullets through the wall. 

Sharon didn’t bother checking for vitals. 

"Where do you want me next?" Sharon asked.

"32nd floor, Conference Room C," Maya said. "They routed some of the audio video feed there, and I just saw a communication from there being routed to Rumlow's earpiece. My guess is that’s the Hydra command post. I don't have visual inside, but there are at least two techs, and two guards. I’m taking out their cameras as fast as I can."

"Copy," Sharon said. She picked up a sidearm from Jeffreys’ and tucked into her waistband. "On my way now. What's the situation on the helicarriers?"

"It's going to come down to the wire," Maya said. "I'm having trouble overriding the command subroutine on the guns, but I blocked them from getting any audio visual feed inside the ships so they have no idea what Rogers is doing."

"What is Captain America doing?" Sharon asked as she began to climb the stairwell.

“I have no idea," Maya said. 

Sharon paused slightly on the landing between 26th and 27th floor. 

“Maya?” Sharon asked. 

There was a pause. Then when Maya spoke, it was as angry as Sharon has ever heard her, “I don’t know why they think he’s a good strategist, because my best guess is that they’re going to crash all three ships on top of Washington DC,” Maya said in one breathe. 

“What?!” Sharon stopped completely between 28th and 29th floor. 

“Yeah, I know. He clearly has never heard of collateral damage containment, or care about what kind of damage three ships the size of helicarriers will do when they come crashing down on Washington DC during work hours-- The chances of them only hitting the Triskeleton and landing in the river is incredibly low. I’m hacking navigation right now so I can aim those ships into the river as best I can if their plan works,” Maya said. 

Sharon moved. There was nothing else she could do. It took a crew of at least four to steer each helicarrier… Maya was good but Sharon wasn’t sure if Maya could physically steer all three helicarriers at once even if she could hack the controls in time. 

Sharon forced herself to move faster, and let the burn in her lung drown out the thoughts of collateral damage in her head. Sharon hadn’t realized that Aunt Peggy was being literal when she said that Rogers would burn everything down. 

Sharon stopped just inside the stairwell on the 32nd floor and evened out her breathing. 

“The hallway is clear,” Maya said in her ear.

“Copy,” Sharon said, then she pulled Jeffreys’ weapon from her waistband with her left hand. 

Sharon had been to Conference C twice. Opaque automated door. Left fed room. 

As Sharon stood outside of the closed door. She slowed her breathing. 

“I will open the door for you in three, two, one,” Maya said. 

As the door flew open, Sharon walked in and button hooked left, registering the three S.T.R.I.K.E. members and the two techs sitting inside. As she moved, she fired both guns at once. 

She felt the blow of a gunshot on her left shoulder and the graze of another bullet that struck her right wrist, but she didn’t feel the pain as she took out all three S.T.R.I.K.E. members with headshots.

She trained her guns in the general direction of the two techs, one man and one woman. The man looked at her, started to say “Hail--” as he reached for a gun that was secured to the bottom of his desk, and Sharon shot him through the heart.

“I suggest you run,” Sharon told the woman. The woman, Sharon thought her name was Chong, nodded at Sharon, and took off running. Sharon trusted that she was smart enough to know that there were possibly three helicarriers that were going to crash into them. 

“Anything I can do with at their command center?” Sharon asked as she assessed the damage to her body. The bullet to her shoulder seemed to have missed anything important when it traveled through her, but she only had about 10 minutes before she would lose use of that arm. The bullet graze on her wrist was superficial and hurt no more than the shallow cut Rumlow had made on her arm. 

“You need to get out, Rogers might be stubborn enough to pull his plan through, ” Maya said. “I located Maria Hill in the auxiliary wing, and Sam Wilson is intercepting Rumlow. Good thing Rogers brought backup.”

“I’m not leaving here without you,” Sharon said. 

“I’m leaving too,” Maya said. “I transferred navigation control to my laptop. It’s going to be a clusterfuck, but I’m good at those-- Meet you at the TJ memorial as soon as I can unless we’re both dead because my steering sucks.”

“What about Pierce?” Sharon asked as she started back toward the stairwell. 

“Dead,” Maya said. “Long story. Will tell you all about it over Thai some time. Now move!”

Sharon moved. 

By the time Sharon made it to the Thomas Jefferson memorial, there was a group of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents already there intermingled with civilians. Sharon was too tired to contemplate if any of them were HYDRA. Everyone gathered there were all watching the wreckage of the helicarriers in the Potomac. Sharon wasn’t sure how Maya managed to steer three ships well enough to make sure none of them hit any other buildings but the Triskeleton, but she only had a moment to be grateful before she fell over on the cool white marble. The redness leaching out of her as darkness overtook her. 

~~~

Sharon woke up in a familiar room. She blinked slowly and tried to orient herself. 

Aunt Peggy’s room. Aunt Peggy was reclined on the chair near her. 

“Aunt Peggy?” Sharon said, her throat dry. 

“You needed the bed more than I did,” Aunt Peggy said, her eyes crinkling. 

“Maya?” Sharon asked. 

“Maya said she had three things she needed to do,” Aunt Peggy answered, and Sharon felt the edge of panic recede. She sunk back into the bed. “She’ll be back as soon as she can.”

“S.H.I.E.L.D.?” Sharon asked. 

“Dismantled, I suppose,” Aunt Peggy said. “Agent Romanoff released all of S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA’s files on the internet.”

Sharon felt her vision white out for a second. All the secrets that Aunt Peggy had sacrificed to keep hidden-- all the personnel files of all the agents, their families-- all of their assets in hostile terrorist organizations-- all the details on the people that S.H.I.E.L.D. had promised to keep safe--

“So it was a good thing Maya already scrubbed S.H.I.E.L.D’s files first and only released things she deemed fit,” Aunt Peggy said.

“What?” Sharon managed to ask as her mind raced. Aunt Peggy smiled. 

Maya couldn’t possibly have had the time to do all of that after she had finally hacked the biometrics lock-- S.H.I.E.L.D.’s files were much too massive-- Sharon’s thoughts abruptly came to an end when the realization hit her. 

“Did you recruit Maya or did she recruit you?” Sharon asked after a long silence. 

Aunt Peggy’s smile softened, “Oh darling, do you think anyone but you could recruit Maya for anything? Maya found one of my projects and came to me--”

“You had been planning to take down S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Sharon said.

“They were going to hold a gun to everyone’s head on Earth,” Aunt Peggy said simply.

When Sharon didn’t answer immediately, Aunt Peggy reached out and touched Sharon’s hair. “Do you remember what I told you about yielding in face of opposition?”

“Yield where I can, but where I can’t, it is my obligation to plant myself like a tree, and ask them to go around me,” Sharon said. She remembered it very clearly. 

“I haven’t taken my own advice for a long time,” Aunt Peggy said slowly. “Over the years, I’ve compromised too much. Always choosing between the lesser of two evils and convincing myself that it was the best I could do-- I guess it took me too long to realize what we had given up in those bargains. So I had to make one last bargain to amend for my choices.”

As Aunt Peggy spoke, her eyes moved over to a bottle of pills on her night stand. Sharon followed her eyes, and realized what they were. The experimental medication that were supposed to help Aunt Peggy think, but had terrible side effects. 

“Aunt Peggy,” Sharon felt tears fill her eyes. 

“I have some time left,” Aunt Peggy said, “and there are some sacrifices that must be made.” Sharon bit her lips to keep herself from sobbing. 

“What happens now?” Sharon asked. 

“That’s for you to decide,” Aunt Peggy said, “I think it’s time for me to actually retire. I’m thinking about moving back to London.” To be away from the stronghold of S.H.I.E.L.D.-- to fade away. 

Before Sharon could reply, the door to the room opened, and Maya marched in with a giant black duffle bag. The shape of the bag suggested there could only be one thing inside. 

“I got his frisbee,” Maya announced to them, breaking the tension in the room. 

“How is Steve doing?” Aunt Peggy asked. 

“He’ll live,” Maya said as she approached Sharon’s bed. “How are you feeling?”

“I’ll live,” Sharon said. Maya frowned at Sharon, and Sharon could hear the unspoken “jerk” in Maya’s slightly raised eyebrow.

“Well, when you are feeling up for it, you should probably bring this back to Captain Rogers,” Maya said, placing the duffle bag by the bed. Sharon had never heard Maya use Steve’s actual title before, she assumed it was for Aunt Peggy’s sake. 

“Did you do something to it?” Aunt Peggy asked. Sharon turned quickly to her aunt. 

Maya’s frown deepened, but even she could not lie to Aunt Peggy. “It’s only cosmetic.”

Sharon waited. 

“I put ‘Giant Dick” on it in invisible ink,” Maya said after a moment. Sharon had never seen Maya actually look repentant for anything, except Maya looked slightly repentant now. “It’s only visible in a very specific light frequency which he will likely never encounter, but it makes me feel better.”

Aunt Peggy laughed. It had been so long since Sharon heard her aunt laugh, Sharon almost forgot the pleasure of it. 

“Oh darling,” Aunt Peggy said after she finally caught her breath, “Only you would think to graffiti an American icon like that.”

“He was willing to drop three helicarriers onto the civilian population of Washington D.C.--” Maya visibly cut herself off with effort. Sharon understood her anger. 

Aunt Peggy looked between Maya and Sharon, then she smiled again. She held out her hand to Maya, and Maya walked over to the other side of the bed and took it. 

“We came of age at a different time, Maya,” Aunt Peggy said as she gently held Maya’s hand. “We fought for the Allies that fire bombed Dresden and we fought for United States that dropped two atomic bombs on civilian population centers. Of course that does not justify the atrocities, but it does change one’s perspectives--Steve, me, probably Bucky too, we all had to live with knowledge of all the lives we could not save. Lives that were lost as a direct result of our actions.”

“Is Bucky Barnes alive?” Sharon asked. It hadn’t seemed like a pressing question except suddenly it was. 

Maya had been watching Aunt Peggy, so she did not see Sharon’s question, but Aunt Peggy asked Maya, “What happened on the helicarrier between Steve and Bucky?”

Maya didn’t answer immediately. She visibly swallowed before she spoke again. “Captain Rogers willingly dropped his shield,” Maya said as she looked to Sharon. “He’d rather die than fight Bucky.”

Sharon felt her mouth falling open in surprise.

Aunt Peggy smiled tightly, “Well, Steve has always been very dramatic.”

~~~

Sharon dragged herself out of bed the next day to give Steve Rogers back his shield. Steve had not woken up yet, and Sharon was honest enough with herself to know that she was relieved to avoid another confrontation with him.

Steve’s new friend was at Steve’s bedside when Sharon approached the room. Marvin Gaye was playing softly in the background. Even though the door was open, Sharon knocked. 

“Hey,” Steve’s friend said.

“Hi,” Sharon said back. “I’m Agent-- I’m Steve’s old neighbor.” 

“I’m Sam,” Steve’s friend smiled warily at her. “Steve’s old neighbor, eh?”  
Sharon held out the giant duffle with Captain America’s shield inside with her good arm, “I brought him something.”

Sam looked at her again, his posture tensing, “Is that what I think it is?”

Sharon opened up the duffle and let the red, white, and blue peek out. “It’s lighter than it looks.”

“Do you think--” Sam started and stopped himself.

“Well, I have been carrying it around for the past 40 minutes, I hardly think Steve will mind if you hold it,” Sharon said. 

Sam’s smile turned warm. He gently took the shield out of the duffle and held it reverently. 

Sharon watched him for a moment, surprised at how right Sam looked with the shield, then she said, “I better get going.”

“The doctors say he will wake up soon,” Sam offered, “want to wait with me?”

“Thank you,” Sharon said. “But I think I best leave you and him and Marvin Gaye by yourselves.” 

Sam laughed. “Aright, I see how it is. Nice to meet you, Steve’s old neighbor. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you.”

“Nice to meet you too, Sam,” Sharon said and left. 

~~~

Aunt Peggy had surprisingly few things that she wanted to take with her to London. Sharon brought a medium size luggage with her to pack up anything else Aunt Peggy might need.

Sharon’s parents had been stoic when she told them that she would be moving to Germany (the closest duty station she could get to London courtesy of the CIA). They did not try to talk her out if, they simply gave her a set of Samsonite luggage so extensive that Sharon could probably pack two lifetime worth of clothes. 

Sharon hauled one of those luggage bag with her now as she slowly went down the corridor of Aunt Peggy’s care facility. As she got closer, she could hear music coming from Aunt Peggy's room. A French song-- Nina Simone. 

The door to Aunt Peggy’s room was partially open but Sharon stopped moving. She could see Steve inside, dancing in slow circles with Aunt Peggy. 

Sharon backed away as quickly until she hit someone behind her. 

“Hey, what’s going on? What’s wrong?” Maya asked. Sharon had not been planning to meet Maya, but suddenly she was so grateful Maya was there.

“They’re dancing together,” Sharon said, feeling the tears that were starting to gather in her eyes. After all these years-- or maybe Steve had been dancing with Aunt Peggy each time he came to visit--

Maya didn’t ask who was dancing. She just pulled Sharon into a tight hug. Then she took Sharon’s hand and gently led Sharon back down the corridor, “Come on, the food here isn’t terrible. We will come back after their date.”

**Author's Note:**

> Colors by Shel Silverstein
> 
> My skin is kind of sort of brownish  
> Pinkish yellowish white.  
> My eyes are greyish blueish green,  
> But I'm told they look orange in the night.  
> My hair is reddish blondish brown,  
> But it's silver when it's wet.  
> And all the colors I am inside  
> Have not been invented yet.


End file.
